Hello from U.S. coin forum

Pnies20

Im completely ignorant on world and ancient coins. Can someone help me identify these for a friend?

Thanks in advance

Sapyx

Top coin is "25 fils" from an Arabic country; show us the other side and we can probably tell you which one.

The bottom coin appears to be a brass tourist replica of an ancient Greek silver coin.

John Conduitt

It’s from the Islamic State (2017 Mosul)

Sapyx

@JohnConduitt said:
It’s from the Islamic State (2017 Mosul)

Ah, that explains why it looked unfamiliar. I was not even aware that ISIS had issued small-change coins (I was aware of the earlier bullion coinage). Though if this actually weighs the 20 grams it claims to weigh, it's hardly "small" change.

Islamic State coinage hasn't made it into the mainstream coin catalogues yet. This website article gives a good overview of the coinage known to have been issued by ISIS, as of late 2018.

I notice this coin has some slight design differences, compared to the 25 fils on that website: the website coin lacks the "20 grams" inscription, while this coin lacks the date.

Pnies20

Thank you guys

SYRACUSIAN

An ISIS coin? Ask your friend to put it in the World and Ancients BST if he wants to.

Pnies20

@SYRACUSIAN said:
An ISIS coin? Ask your friend to put it in the World and Ancients BST if he wants to.

What is something like that worth?

I’m sure I could get him to sell it.

Sapyx

It's difficult to say since, as I mentioned earlier, these coins haven't yet been catalogued in the price guides. In such cases, all we've got to go off is prices realised on eBay etc. And I can't find a single example of an ISIS coin being offered for sale on eBay.

It's also possible such sales are against US law or eBay policy, as "Syria" is on the blackist of countries prohibited from trade or import.

Icollecteverything

Are Russian coins going to be prohibited now?

Lever

I'd like to find one of those 25 fil coins. Anyone here have an idea on where to get one?

Sapyx

I've never actually seen one for sale before. Not even joelscoins, my usual go-to source for weird, esoteric, unofficial and quasi-official coinages, has any ISIS coins listed.

Lever

I think they may be too rare for Joel Anderson. I always got the impression he got decent sized lots of the varieties he sells. Also the legality of these seems questionable, at least in the U.S. I would certainly want one from an ethical source. So probably from a Kurd or Westerner who was helping them against Daesh.

Sapyx

The text descriptions accompanying their only appearances on the web seem to imply that the only people holding such things are the underground remnant of ISIS (who would never voluntarily let the holy currency be defiled by Westerners) and the Kurdish guerrillas who found them on dead or captured ISIS fighters and who regard these coins as war trophies. The civilians living under ISIS rule don't seem to have kept them, not even for sale to Westerners for much-needed hard cash. Which to me implies the coins were mainly circulated amongst the ISIS fighters themselves, kind of like military scrip, rather than more broadly circulated as general currency.

Pnies20

@Sapyx said:
The text descriptions accompanying their only appearances on the web seem to imply that the only people holding such things are the underground remnant of ISIS (who would never voluntarily let the holy currency be defiled by Westerners) and the Kurdish guerrillas who found them on dead or captured ISIS fighters and who regard these coins as war trophies. The civilians living under ISIS rule don't seem to have kept them, not even for sale to Westerners for much-needed hard cash. Which to me implies the coins were mainly circulated amongst the ISIS fighters themselves, kind of like military scrip, rather than more broadly circulated as general currency.

😂

There’s other explanations as to how someone might receive one.

When I briefly talked to the guy he said he was giving food to someone and they gave him the coin as a kind gesture to thank them for the food. He just kept it in his pocket and didn’t know what it was.

Lever

I read somewhere that ISIS forced people in some areas, Raqqah and Deir ez-Zor for example, to use the copper and silver in commerce. With a big difference in buy and sell prices in the money exchange office as added profit for the regime. Whereas the gold was pretty much just used by ISIS fighters for things like dowries. Some of the pictures I've found online of the copper pieces look rather circulated.