Nomos 38

KINGS OF PERSIS. Baydād (Bagadat), governor, early-mid 3rd century BC. Tetradrachm (Silver, 29 mm, 16.85 g, 9 h), Istakhr (Persepolis), circa 280. Head of Baydād to right, with a short beard and a hoop earring with a pendant drop, wearing a decorated kyrbasia with its flaps tied back. Rev. bgdt prtrk’ZY ALHYA bgwrt pkh Fire temple; to left, Baydād standing to right, raising hands in prayer; in the field to right, standard. Alram 515. BMFA 2342. Klose/Müseler 2/3. Rare; well-centered, with a powerful and well-made portrait in high relief. Apparently overstruck (on a Seleucid tetradrachm of Alexander type?) and with minor marks, otherwise, about extremely fine.

From the Prospero Collection, New York Sale XXVII, 4 January 2012, 623 (hammered for $32,500).

Native Persian coinage began again in Iran late in the first quarter of the 3rd century as issues of the local ‘governors’ under Seleucid authority. Baydād (previously transcribed as Bagadat) was the first of those rulers to strike coins, including tetradrachms like this one as well as fractional issues (he also produced an earlier series showing him enthroned). This early coinage of Persis is remarkable for its adamant reliance on iconography derived solely from its own Persian tradition, rather than accepting the forms of Greek art then dominating the ancient world. While the die cutter for this coin must have been familiar with Greek work, the portraits of Baydād are clearly of a Persian ruler - perhaps only the relatively short beard is a concession to more ‘modern’ tastes. The standard that appears on the right on the reverse is surely what was to become the Sasanian national battle standard: a huge flag that came to be embroidered with precious stones, gold and silver: it was captured and destroyed by the Arabs at the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah in 636.