Arabic i.d.?

tbirde56

Tentatively identified by seller as
1. Afghanistan, Medina, 934-940 (the large one)
2. Egypt, Damascus, 1 Dirhem, 1441-1445
Can anyone give better details and possible values?

newsman

Brad:

Number one looks like an Abbasid dirham. I can't quite read the writing because it's so worn, but the dates of 934-940 are consistent with the Abbasid era, and Medina would have been a place they would have been minted.

tbirde56

Thanks!

tbirde56

I found 2 similar coins on Frank Robinson's new ancients LIST that has great photos of every coin there.
The large one I have pictured is similar to Lot 572 and 573 coins of his, Umayyads, silver Dirhem (26 mm), c. 700 AD (BU) and Abbasids, silver Dirhem (27 mm), Al-Mansur, AH 155, Al-Muhammadiya (VF).
I still have no idea of value for mine but I'd imagine a couple bucks at most.

tbirde56

An update:

I asked the question on the Yahoo group South Asia Coins and got this:

Coin #1: Samanids (Persia), Nasr II bin Ahmad (AH 301-331/ AD
914-943), AR Dirham, (Madinat Balkh?), AH 328 citing
caliph al-Razi. Album 1451. Rather a tentative
attribution due to condition and photography but the
date is reasonably clear in the photo as is al-Razi’s
name which agrees with the date. The mint name is
little more than a guess.

Coin #2: Mamluks (Burji dynasty) (Egypt), al-Zahir abu Sa’id Jaqmaq
(AH 842-857/ AD 1438-1453), AR Dirham, type of
Damascus but mint & date off flan. Cf. Balog 741-744;
Album 1007. “Jaqmaq” appears within the circle on
obverse. Attribution certain.

Both are common coins. Due to poor condition, the
retail value of either coin is nominal, perhaps $10 or
so.

David L. Tranbarger Rare Coins
Ancient - Medieval - Oriental - British
Website: http://www.vcoins.com/dltcoins/

Coins that are ~1060 and ~550 years old! Both part of an 8 coin lot bought for $31. I'll post the other coins, moderns, in a separate thread when I have time.

Some more background info from All Empires.com:

The Samanid amirs had control over the most important silver producing veins of Central Asia in Badakhshan and Farghana, which made possible the development of the coinage system. The Samanids coinage, due to its vast quantity, was popular not only in the Islamic world, but also outside it in Russia, Scandinavia, the Baltic lands, and even in the British Isles.