Small token with the liberty head. What is this?

Comments

• spoon Posts: 2,798 ✭✭✭

  January 4, 2010 7:02AM

  Very cool! Here's a pic with the Arabic rotated right side up. I'll have to stare at it a bit more to get a better idea, but definitely a neat piece. My first thoughts are that it might have been gilt and sold in a modern-ish belly-dance kit (looks like a loop was removed), but looks a bit too solid for that.
  
  If you ever decide to sell it I'm interested! I collect cross-cultural oddities
  
  

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• Ciccio Posts: 1,405 ✭

  January 4, 2010 12:24PM

  Thank you Spoon. If you find more info, please let me know.
  
  I don't have the token with me (it is in Italy) , but if I ever decide to sell it I will let you know.

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• newsman Posts: 2,658 ✭✭✭

  January 4, 2010 12:43PM

  I'm guessing that someone either tried to engrave a facsimile of a 19th-century Turkish coin on the reverse of a U.S. large cent, or just copied the obverse design on a token.

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• spoon Posts: 2,798 ✭✭✭

  January 4, 2010 4:28PM

  Here's an example of the type it's imitating. Some of the silver from Mustafa II's reign featured this design (AH1223+22/32 = AD1829-1839). That would lend credence to it being a contemporary piece, but it just doesn't feel right. It may be old, I'd guess early 20th century or late 19th at most, but I doubt it's from Mustafa's time. My WAG would place it on the more recent end of the spectrum, 1910s to modern. Keep in mind there was an influx of Anglos beginning in the late 19th century, especially in Egypt but also in the Ottoman homeland. This could be a kitschy souvenir jewelry piece marketed to them. But I find it hard to believe that anyone in the Arabic-speaking world would have sufficient interest in America to make something like this before having that crowd to sell to. Aside from a small handful of missionaries and oddballs, there were few to no Americans in the Mideast prior to the second half of the 19th century, and even then the number was small - more likely someone knew this coin came from an English-speaker, thought it was British and made crude copies to sell to all the Brits. Or because of the loop, I'm falling back on the belly dance kit which could place it much more recently.
  
  Whatever it is, it is not official and it's not engraved. There looks to be a cud on reverse at 5:30 indicating it's struck. There never was a copper/bronze Turkish piece with this design (though, like the one below, some may appear so but they are only low quality silver). Even though there are some of the type with poor worksmanship on the wreath and flowers, the writing always remains quality.
  
  Also, more on the inscription. The backwards 3 at top may be a letter 'ain as mentioned in the other thread, but I think that is indeed the Ottoman number 4 - that's the position where the regnal year is usually placed (the one below is 26). If that is a regnal year, it doesn't match with any years that the actual coin of this type were produced for Mustafa. And, you'll notice the real ones have the date of accession on reverse at bottom, which this omits entirely. The rest reads "zarb fi kustantiniya" - "made in constantinople".
  
  Do you recall the approximate diameter? We can see if it was intended to match a certain denomination with that. It looks small.
  
  
  (Pic taken from here, not mine)
  
  Fascinating whatever it is!

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