Help Identifying A Very Old Dirham
Whatisthiscoin
Posts: 16 ✭
Hello everybody!
I recently acquired 8 very old dirhams. I very much enjoy the look of ancient and modern Islamic coinage. I also enjoy the immense puzzle of identifying them as a non-arabic/tamil/hindi/etc speaker. I can handle modern Arabic coins fairly well for ID purposes - but ancient dirhams are another story entirely.
My "identification procedure" always comes down to a brute force pattern recognition mass search on Zeno.ru - and usually results in, at very best, a general idea.
So, for this batch, I thought I would try something different and see if any of you masterminds might be able to get to the bottom of things.
Rather than overwhelm everyone, I figured I would start with just one of the coins first.
With this coin, I think maybe the language is Tamil? It is sufficiently inscrutable in any event that I'm not even sure what the proper orientation is.
Any assistance is highly sought after and much appreciated!
Comments
Sorry, should add it weights out at 1.8g and I assume it is silver or billon
I have spent some time for interesting research.
This is silver Dirham of Ilkhans, Ghazan Mahmud (694-703 AH).
The weight of the coin corresponds to the standard for the dirham established after the monetary reform of 698 AH (2.16 g). So, the coin was minted in the period 698-703 AH.
Obverse: tengri-yin / küchündür / Ghazan Mahmud / ghasanu / deledkegülüg / sen (Uyghur script) — By the power of God (this coin) has been struck for Ghazan.
Reverse: Kalima.
However, I do not see the year and the mint on the coin.
Therefore, this coin may be an Anatolian imitation minted at the local mint with permission from Ghazan Mahmud.
Great resource for Ilkhans coinage — Altaycoins
This type of coins on Zeno
Anatolian imitations on Zeno
Wow! This is amazing work!
I really appreciate it very much! I doubt I ever would have figured this one out on my own given the Uyghur script.
I would absolutely love to post the other seven coins - but I also don't want to push my luck, especially as a new member of the forums. Is that kind of thing frowned upon?
In any event, thank you again!
Also, I LOVE what you did with the photo composite! How did you go about that?
Please post the other coins. I would love to try to identify them.
I processed the photo of your coins in a graphical editor.
It looks great - I will do that with the other seven first and then post them all in a different post!
Thank you VERY much for your help!