★ An unpublished large bronze of queen Boran ★

SASANIAN KINGS. Boran, 630-631. AE (Bronze, 28 mm, 5.14 g, 2 h), WYHC mint (Weh-az-Amid-Kavad), RY 1 = AD 630. Bust of Queen Boran to right, wearing elaborate crown with two wings and korymbos set on crescent; ribbon on her left shoulder, crescent and ribbon on her right; behind head, AFZUT GDH ('may her kingship increase' in Pahlawi); before head, BWL'N ('Boran' in Pahlawi). Rev. Fire altar with ribbons, flanked by two attendants; star and crescent flanking flames; to left, date; to right, WYHC (name of the mint in Pahlawi); all within triple border, star-in-crescents in margin. SSCT - (cf. 4328 for drachm). Sunrise -. Unpublished and unique, a very interesting issue. Good very fine.

Queen Boran was a daughter of Chrosrau II, who ruled Persia for a short time in 630-631 after her husband Kavadh had died under mysterious circumstances. She was the first Sasanian Queen in history, but her short reign was troublesome and she was apparently murdered after two years and replaced by her sister Azarmidokht. All of Boran's coins are rare, in particularly her bronzes, of which apparently only three are known to exist, all of them struck in Weh-az-Amid-Kavad in her first year regnal year. This piece differs from them in being significantly larger and heavier: it must either represent an extremely short-lived large bronze denomination, or it is a trial strike from dies of a drachm.