ARAB-SASANIAN, ‘ABD AL-RAHMAN B. MUHAMMAD (fl. 80-84h). Drachm, SK (Sijistan) 83h. Obverse: In margin: Tash – bismillah – rabbi. Weight: 3.94g. Reference: Malek 1060 = Morton & Eden auction 82, 20 October 2016, lot 92, same dies. Centres cleaned, very fine to good very fine and very rare. Malek proposes that the date on this coin should be read as 83h, with the final two letters of the decade omitted; this is also supported by the existence of coins dated 84h with the same word in the first quadrant of the obverse margin. His proposal to read this word as T‘ar seems more difficult, as the two ‘teeth’ immediately following the ‘t’ are clearly vertical and spaced equally with the tooth which follows them, making is hard to interpret them as a letter ‘ayn. It seems preferable to propose a conjectural reading such as Tash, interpreting the three equal ‘teeth’ as forming a sin or shin, or something like Tabir, where each ‘tooth’ represents a single grapheme.

Estimate: GBP 700 - 1000