Home World & Ancient Coins Forum
Options

Identification Stumpers

I continue to organize and cull my collection -/ great fun on a rainy day. I have solved a few mysteries along the way, but am still stumped and baffled by three remaining coins. Any help is truly appreciated. Front and back photos follow, with weight and diameter for each:

1 had a note that it might be Nepali, but I couldn’t find any such horseman for that region. #2 had me thinking “Persia?” but again I came up dry. #3 seems South Asian but it also is strike 3! All 3 coins appear to be copper or bronze. Thanks all.

"The Internet? Is that thing still around??" - Homer Simpson

Comments

  • Options
    BailathaclBailathacl Posts: 1,015 ✭✭✭

    Coin #1 looks like it might be from the medieval era Licchavi Kingdom in Nepal, but I can’t confirm or pin it down further. The other 2 remain full mysteries to me.

    "The Internet? Is that thing still around??" - Homer Simpson
  • Options
    WeissWeiss Posts: 9,935 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I just mentioned coin #2 (or something very similar) on a thread of slabbed coins with little value. I got this when I was 6 or 7 years old back in the mid-1970s:

    We are like children who look at print and see a serpent in the last letter but one, and a sword in the last.
    --Severian the Lame
  • Options
    BailathaclBailathacl Posts: 1,015 ✭✭✭

    Thank you! That lets me close the book on coin #2. And I am oddly attracted to slabbed coins that have absolutely no business being slabbed — I always assume they have a backstory.

    The other 2 may remain unattributed, alas. Thanks to anyone who gave it a shot though.

    "The Internet? Is that thing still around??" - Homer Simpson
  • Options

    There are a few here from Porbandar that look a lot like coin 3 https://en.numista.com/catalogue/porbandar_princely-1.html

  • Options
    BailathaclBailathacl Posts: 1,015 ✭✭✭

    Thanks very much John, spot on for Porbandar it would appear from that. Much appreciated.

    "The Internet? Is that thing still around??" - Homer Simpson
  • Options

    Coin 1 could be a jital from Khwarezm, perhaps Muhammad or Mangubarni, although it's a bit small. Stephen Album lists a fair few varieties, but not smaller than 16mm:

    Second coin here: http://www.worldofcoins.eu/forum/index.php?topic=27160.0

    https://www.zeno.ru/showphoto.php?photo=215718

    http://numismaclub.com/unt/92128-z___020_ala_al___din_muhammad_of_khwarezm__herat__famous_foe_of_genghis_khan.html

    Stephen Album:
    The jitals of Muhammad and Mangubarni are often quite well struck, though typically found quite worn, especially those of the western mints located mainly in modern Afghanistan. Because many of these jitals are made of mixed metal (copper, lead and other base metals), they sometimes tend to laminate and can literally flake apart into fragments. For this reason, all jitals should be stored with minimum exposure to changes in temperature and humidity.

  • Options
    BailathaclBailathacl Posts: 1,015 ✭✭✭

    Additional thanks and appreciation. That Zeno site is really loaded, but takes some getting used to before it’s easy to navigate. Kwarezm looks like an solid informed guess on Coin #1 to me. (Will store with silicon packet!)

    Very satisfying to now have a good sense of what these coins are.

    "The Internet? Is that thing still around??" - Homer Simpson
Sign In or Register to comment.