I wasn't too far off then. How do you tell the imitations?
It's the
style and the fact that BHL is an extremely
rare mint signature for
Sasanian drachms. And these particular
countermarks, which don't appear on any other issue (foro does, but not with this letterform
style). BHL does not necessarily denote Balkh, btw. And there are other "mints" in this
imitative series: GD and what looks like GL; AHM; BYSh (I think); H (very
stylized); and then BHL written as BHY, BBY, etc. And the pellets: one, two or three pellets on the reverses at 6h (single pellet reverses known on early H4 drachms: ST year 2; GD year 3) There is one example known without the
countermarks (and there may be others). tom