Not mine, but someone asked me if I could help ID this: I'm guessing a token rather than a coin--I don't see a date or country name. I can't read the script on the right side, but it looks Arabic to me. 18.36g, diameter is 3.1cm Any help would be much appreciated.
The Arabic very likely reads "My Faith in Allah Protects me" يقيني بالله يقيني transliterated as "yaqini biallah yaqini" and pronounced roughly as "ya-quee-nee bi-Allah ya-quee-nee" (the Arabic "q" is a glottal and pronounced at the back of the throat). I'm guessing this is some sort of a mosque token. The building looks like a mosque as well. It could be an older depiction of the mosque at Medina in Saudi Arabia (Al-Masjid an-Nabawi). This might also have served as a "faith token" of some sort that Muslims would carry in their pockets, either to remind them of their faith or as a religious variation on a "good luck" token. My (somewhat uneducated) guess would be that it's a generic token and so you might have trouble finding more information. But I see many coins like it while searching "Islamic token" or "Mosque token."
Thanks for all the help on this one. I wrote him back to say it was probably some sort or Mosque or devotional token. I wonder what era these are from...
