Item number: A3586

Reference number: MACW#1479-1482

Year: circa AD 550-650

Material: Silver

Size: 21.9 x 21.5 x 0.9 mm

Weight: 3.7 g

Provenance: Stephen Album Rare Coins 2025

This is a silver drachm, probably issued by the Maitraka dynasty in imitation of the coinage of the Sasanian king Peroz I.

The obverse most likely represents a highly schematised right-facing bust of Peroz I. The ruler wears a tall rounded crown, with the usual sun or flame element at the top omitted. The paired winged elements of the Sasanian headdress, typical of Peroz, are transformed into spiral-like linear motifs. On standard Sasanian coins, royal titles would appear to either side of the bust, but here they seem to have been effaced or omitted. The design is framed by a border of prominent pellets.

The reverse depicts a linear and abstract rendering of a Zoroastrian fire altar, flanked on each side by an attendant. The design is enclosed within a border of rope-pattern ornamentation.

Peroz I (also rendered as Firuz I) reigned from AD 459 to 484. He succeeded his father Yazdegerd II as Shahanshah of the Sasanians after defeating his elder brother Hormizd III in a struggle for the throne, in which he secured the support of the Hephthalites. Early in his reign he suppressed a revolt in Caucasian Albania and destroyed the Kidarite kingdom in the east, briefly extending Sasanian authority into Tokharistan. At the same time, however, his empire endured a devastating drought and famine lasting seven years. In the later years of his reign, Peroz engaged in repeated conflicts with the Hephthalites, was captured on two occasions, and compelled to pay heavy tribute. He was ultimately killed in battle against them in AD 484, after which his son Kavadh I later succeeded to the throne.

The origins of the Huns are much debated, with hypotheses linking them to Mongolic, Turkic, Iranian, or Tungusic groups. The Hephthalites, whose ancestry may have lain in Iranian or Turkic tribes, rose to prominence during the Hunnic migrations of the fourth to sixth centuries AD, occupying the regions once ruled by the Greco-Bactrian kingdom. Their name first became known to the polities of the Chinese heartland in the Northern Wei period, while Byzantine sources referred to them as the “White Huns.” From AD 474 onwards, they were engaged in recurrent wars with the Sasanian Empire. On the basis of substantial indemnities and tribute received, they began to develop imitative coinages in the “Peroz style.” This coinage spread eastwards along the Hindu Kush, probably originating in eastern Tokharistan, and was carried southward into India by the Alchon Huns, who identified themselves as Huns.

Under the onslaught of the Alchon Huns, the Gupta Empire of India collapsed progressively after the mid-fifth century AD. Skandagupta’s governor Bhatarka, posted in Saurashtra (modern Kathiawar Peninsula in Gujarat), asserted his effective independence. His descendants subsequently claimed royal status, establishing the Maitraka dynasty (also rendered as the Maitraka of Valabhi).

物件編號: A3586

參考書目編號: MACW#1479-1482

年代: 約公元 550-650 年

材質: 銀

尺寸: 21.9 x 21.5 x 0.9 mm

重量: 3.7 g

來源: 史蒂芬稀有錢幣專輯 2025

這是一枚可能由邁特拉卡王朝，仿波斯薩珊王朝卑路斯一世鑄幣，所造的1德拉克馬銀幣。

錢幣的正面可能是卑路斯一世右側半身像，但經高度簡化，頭戴高聳的圓冠，省略冠頂的太陽或火焰。頭冠兩側，卑路斯式的雙層翼冠轉化為類似渦流的線條。薩珊王朝的錢幣在肖像兩側會有王號，但可能遭磨耗或省略。幣圖外環繞粗珠點。

背面為線條抽象化的祆教拜火聖壇，兩側各有一侍從。幣圖外環繞繩紋。

卑路斯一世(Peroz I，亦譯為菲魯茲一世)，約西元459–484年在位。繼其父伊嗣埃二世，即位為薩珊沙阿。他在與兄長霍爾米茲德三世(亦譯荷姆茲三世)的王位爭奪戰中，向嚈噠人借兵勝出，繼而登基。甫登位便鎮壓了高加索阿爾巴尼亞的叛亂，並消滅了東方的寄多羅王朝，短暫擴張至吐火羅地區；另一方面，帝國同時遭受長達七年的旱災與饑荒。卑路斯一世後期與嚈噠人爆發多次衝突，兩度被俘並被迫繳納沉重賠款，最終於西元484年在與嚈噠人的戰役中戰死，其子卡瓦德一世於日後繼位。

匈人的起源眾說紛紜，有蒙古、突厥、伊朗、通古斯等說的分歧。而起源可能為伊朗或突厥部落的嚈噠人，也在公元4-6世紀的匈人大遷徙中興起，據有希臘-巴克特里亞王國一帶。嚈噠之名在北魏時首次為中原政權所知，並在拜占廷文獻中被稱為「白匈人」。自公元474年起，嚈噠與薩珊帝國反覆交戰，並以獲得的大量賠款與歲貢為基礎，開始發展仿造的「卑路斯式」錢幣。該形制隨著興都庫什山脈東段，可能發源於東吐火羅斯坦，自稱為匈人的艾肯人的南下，逐漸傳播到印度地區。

在艾肯匈人的侵攻下，印度笈多王朝於公元五世紀中葉後逐漸崩潰。室犍陀笈多(Skandagupta)遣往索拉什特拉(今古吉拉特邦卡提亞瓦半島)的總督婆達迦(Bhatarka)因此實質獨立，後裔並逕自稱王，是為邁特拉卡王朝(亦譯梅特臘卡王朝)。