124 
ANCIENT COINS 
The comparative moderation of the climate at Hamadan was of 
great service to the recovery of my own health, which those 
more intemperate climates had reduced to excessive debility; 
but to my surprise, as well as distress, one of my servants became 
suddenly and alarmingly ill, which detained me several days, 
awaiting his convalescence. 
During this, my lengthened sojourn, I improved my acquaint¬ 
ance with some respectable and learned Jews, who, I understood, 
were likely to assist me in augmenting my collection of the coins 
of the country. Through their means, I was fortunate enough to 
procure several of the Sassanian kings, also some of the Arsacidae, 
and a large silver coin of Alexander the Great. One evening 
after a fatiguing morning’s ride, while sitting near a window, 
before the reviving breath of the north-west breeze, and in view 
of a fine sweep of the mountain, under whose shade so many of 
these kings had reposed, I made out a list of their coins in my 
possession ; some of which I also sketched on paper, and now 
present to my reader, as a specimen of the moneys of those ages, 
and in elucidation of their history. * 
I have followed Mons. De Sacey’s method in deciphering the 
legends on the following Sassanian coins. 
No. 1. is a silver coin of Shapoor, in pretty fair preservation. 
The head of the king is executed in a style rather superior to 
most of the money of this race I have yet seen. Both the cha¬ 
racter of the face, and the fashion of the crown, bear a decided 
resemblance to the bas-relief at Nakshi-Roustam, representing 
that monarch and the captive Emperor Valerian. The legend 
* See Plate LVIII. Vol. I. p. 707. By a mistake, this plate was inserted in the 
first volume instead of the second. 
