My wife purchased a coin while visiting africa and wishes me to figure out what she bought. The coin appears copperish (though no green, just the copper color). It has a set of scales on one side. With some writing between the scale. A wedsite had a number conversion (Arabic to English), the number translated to 1299. The other side has arabic (?) writting on it. Any help identifying it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, Kris
Is it like this one? http://cgi.ebay.com/ZANZIBAR-1-PESA...goryZ533QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem#ebayphotohosting AH1299 was roughly 1881-1882
Kris,it sounds like you have an example of the very common Zanzibari Pysa that always turns up. Aidan.
The seller on Ebay has got the denomination wrong.The Pesa (derived from 'Pysa','Paisa',& 'Pice') was actually issued by the German East Africa Company for their colony in German East Africa (later Tanganyika) in 1890.The Italians had a similar denomination called 'Besa',which was used in Italian Somaliland (now Somalia). Aidan.