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Gold Islamic coin?

BithrateBithrate Posts: 555 ✭✭
in World & Ancient Coins Forum
Anyone familiar enough with these to comment? What era, etc?

Thanks! image

Pic:

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Comments

  • newsmannewsman Posts: 2,658 ✭✭✭
    It's a gold dinar from the early Abbasid era, but I can't read the date.
  • lordmarcovanlordmarcovan Posts: 43,897 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Early-ish. Pre-Ottoman, maybe. Dark Ages/Medieval, I think.

    Sorry, but I don't really know for sure, except that I was reading about Viking hoards or something like that recently, and a similar looking Islamic coin was shown.

    Most of the later Ottoman stuff would have had the toughra symbol, I reckon.

    Edit- I'll go with what newsman said. Sounds right to me. Which means my vague guesses were not too far off the mark.

    Abbasid Caliphate

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  • BithrateBithrate Posts: 555 ✭✭
    Cool. Thanks, guys. Any value in this one over melt?
  • lordmarcovanlordmarcovan Posts: 43,897 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Well, I'd pay a few dollars over melt for it, personally.

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  • BithrateBithrate Posts: 555 ✭✭


    << <i>Well, I'd pay a few dollars over melt for it, personally. >>



    image

    Not looking to sell, just wondering what the coin's worth. Thanks again, LM! image

    Edited for spelling.
  • lordmarcovanlordmarcovan Posts: 43,897 ✭✭✭✭✭
    You probably can guess what I'd want it for. image

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  • newsmannewsman Posts: 2,658 ✭✭✭


    << <i>Cool. Thanks, guys. Any value in this one over melt? >>



    It's probably worth more than melt, but these are fairly common, if that could be said of a 1,300-year-old coin. I have one I bought for less than $100, without the hole.
  • SapyxSapyx Posts: 2,368 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The date is on the bottom pic. The Arabic legend around the rim, beginning at 2 o'clock and reading counterclockwise, says: "by will of Allah, this dinar was struck in the year six and fifty and one hundred". Year 156 in the Islamic calendar translates to 773 AD, putting it during the reign of the Abbasid caliph Al-Mansur. The mint city isn't named, which means it was struck in the capital of the Caliphate, Baghdad.

    Stephen Album lists the dinars of Al-Mansur as "common" so, being holed like that, it's probably not worth too much above bullion.

    As a numismatic aside, I notice the Wikipedia article on Al-Mansur depicts the unique "OFFA REX" dinar, struck in England by the Anglo-Saxon king Offa of Mercia, imitating a coin of almost this exact same type (the Offa coin bears the date AH 157).
    Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.
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  • newsmannewsman Posts: 2,658 ✭✭✭


    << <i>"by will of Allah, this dinar was struck in the year six and fifty and one hundred" >>



    Thanks, Sapyx -- I now see that it says (in Arabic): "bismillah daraba hatha al-dinar fi sana sitta wa khamseen wa mee'ah," which translates to exactly what you said

    That archaic script always confuses me.
  • SapyxSapyx Posts: 2,368 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I can't read it either. I've got Richard Plant's book, which has excellent pictures. image
    Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.
    Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, "Meditations"

    Apparently I have been awarded the DPOTD twice. B)
  • BithrateBithrate Posts: 555 ✭✭
    That's amazing, Sapyx. Thanks a lot! image
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