Classical Numismatic Group, LLC
Electronic Auction 355 15 July 2015
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HUNNIC TRIBES, Kidarites. Uncertain ruler. Late 4th-early 5th centuries. AR Drachm (26mm, 3.49 g, 2h). Taxila mint (or its vicinity). Diademed bust right, wearing winged mural crown with korymbos (in the style of Sasanian king Vahrām IV); pseudo-legend around / Fire altar; flanked by two attendants, each wearing mural crown with korymbos; pseudo-legend at sides . SNS III Vahrām (Bahram) IV type Ib1/3 (cf. pl. 33, A1); Göbl, Dokumente pl. 6, VII, 4; FPP fig. 82, 5 (on right); CNG E-272, lot 185. VF, lightly toned, porous.
This type, imitating Vahrām (Bahram) IV, is well known from hoards found in the vicinity of Taxila. At the beginning of Vahrām's reign in AD 388, Taxila was separated from the Sasanian domain by the Kidarites, who soon took control of the important trading center circa AD 390. As such, this issue is not a Sasanian issue, but one struck while the city was under the control of the Kidarites. The Kidarites were known to have imitated coinage of other cultures as well as striking their own types, and some of those imitations are certainly of Sasanian types. From the time of the great Athenian owls of the classical Greek world in the fifth century BC, many coinage types were imitated for the purposes of conducting trade in a well-recognized coinage type. As Taxila was an important trading center along the southern Silk Road that extended from India to Byzantium, it is not surprising that some trade would be conducted in Sasanian types, and this coinage would facilitate that trade.
This type, imitating Vahrām (Bahram) IV, is well known from hoards found in the vicinity of Taxila. At the beginning of Vahrām's reign in AD 388, Taxila was separated from the Sasanian domain by the Kidarites, who soon took control of the important trading center circa AD 390. As such, this issue is not a Sasanian issue, but one struck while the city was under the control of the Kidarites. The Kidarites were known to have imitated coinage of other cultures as well as striking their own types, and some of those imitations are certainly of Sasanian types. From the time of the great Athenian owls of the classical Greek world in the fifth century BC, many coinage types were imitated for the purposes of conducting trade in a well-recognized coinage type. As Taxila was an important trading center along the southern Silk Road that extended from India to Byzantium, it is not surprising that some trade would be conducted in Sasanian types, and this coinage would facilitate that trade.