Extremely Rare Kavadh I Drachm

Sale: CNG 75, Lot: 740. Estimate $500.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 23 May 2007.  Sold For $750. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

SASANIAN KINGS. Kavadh I. Second reign, AD 488-497. Æ Drachm (1.94 g, 3h). Uncertain mint. Crowned bust of Kavadh I right, ribbons over right and left shoulders; stars to left of crown / Diademed bust right, raising right hand. SNS Type Ib/3a; M.I. Mochiri, "Les monnaies de Kavad I à double effigie," Proceedings of the Third European Conference on Iranian Studies, 11-15 September 1995 (1998), 1/5 (obv./rev.); cf. Göbl II/4 and pl. 11, 192. VF, brown patina, harshly cleaned, clipped. Extremely rare.

Apart from the one known specimen in silver (Göbl II/4 and pl. 11, 192 = Alram 902 = De Morgan p. 711, 187), all other recorded examples of this type are in bronze. While the obverse is clearly that of Kavadh I, the individual depicted on the reverse, as well as the legends in the field, have been the subject of much scholarly speculation. Based on the specimen at his disposal, De Morgan read the legends as "le prête satrape," thereby positing a yet otherwise unknown satrap. A well-preserved and fine-style example published by F. Avazarmani ("Barrasi-ye sekkha-ye sasani, " Fravahr 318 [Tehran 1990], pp. 12-15), led him to conclude that the type was issued to commemorate the designation of Khosrau I as Kavadh's heir. Mochiri, however, examining those specimens then known to him, argued that the figure is the deity Shahrevar (Khshathra vairya), the personification of the ideal of monarchy or empire.