The bottom looks like a ship with a star and a person welcoming it with hands raised. Although usually t hese coins do not have images, only words.
Very close to this Mahmud Shah II: Mahmud Shah II (1510-1531) Copper falus, AH 939 ! Weight: 8.03 gm., Dim: 15 x 16 mm., Die Axis: 6 o'clock Legend: mahmud shah al-khalji bin nasir shah / Legend: al-sultan bin al-sultan, mintmark: X, AH date 939 (3 retrograde!) (= 1532-1533 CE) Ref: Goron-Goenka M172 var
Posted the OP almost a year ago. This coin is magnetic, my only one that is. Does anyone know what the particulars of the alloy might be? Like just copper/iron or a litlle tin or zinc also? Are a lot of these an iron alloy? Are iron alloy coins found in any other ancient lands? @THCoins or @Parthicus ? Thanks
Interesting! I never considered the possibility of a magnetic ancient/medieval coin, and would never have thought to check that. I of course have no useful information, but will be interested to see what you find out.
Thanks for the reply anyway- I was thinking of tagging you and @dougsmit actually. I know Doug knows a lot about the minting process and history. Will see. I haven't done any general searches about it that I remember. maybe I did and came up with nothing.
Just found this discussion on the magnetic properties of ancients on FORUM: http://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=49787.0;all and this discussion:https://www.coincommunity.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=184858
I asked the magnetic question back when my web pages were new and never got a good answer. The link above is as good as anything I have seen. Sorry, I know nothing on the matter. "This poor little coin almost went unsold on eBay but I took pity on it and gave it a home. It is not a pretty example of an AE 18 of Pautalia showing Geta and Asclepius. The only thing than makes it special is that it is weakly attracted to a magnet. Bronze coins should not be magnetic. Why is this one? I would guess that it contains a bit of iron (perhaps even an iron core). This could be an accident or something as remote as a special medicinal issue containing material from a meteorite fall. (I said it was remote.) As a collector of meteorites (which contain iron), I was attracted to this coin. If you have any ancient coins that are magnetic, please write."
Well after reading some of the discussion links I did check and indeed the Fals in the OP is very attracted to the small rare earth magnets I have but not attracted at all to a weak refrigerator magnet. None of the other coins I have are at all attracted to even the rare earths. I deduce from this per the discussions is that the alloy has just enough maybe only a few percent however of iron that has possibly crystallized in a specific way to form larger iron deposits within the structure of the coin. There is a journal article I also found about it but only a short abstract was available. i will post that link here if anyone is interested: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0305440383901267 Thanks Doug - your Pautalia is interesting as well.
The one coin I didn't check was my small Pautalia: Faustina jr and guess what- IT IS ALSO slightly magnetic. Not near as much as the Fals however; Here is the coin:
I think it is an iron alloy because from what I gather nickel is only magnetic when it is in pure or almost pure form. Like US nickels are not magnetic.
