A friend of mine recently showed me this currency which he claims is from the early centuries of Islam. (refer to the attached image) I was hoping if some one could help find out it's true value and whether or not his claims are well founded.
Ah, I knew that looked familiar. I was mistaking AH with AD (thought it was 926 AD). Appreciate the help, Ardatirion. However, if you were to make a wild guess, how much do you think this one should go for?
The design of this is based on a square rupee of Mughal emperor Muhammad Akbar. However, it is most likely a modern fantasy, often sold as "temple token". Next to the crudeness of the calligraphy, the date is the biggest clue. Akbars reign did not start till AH963.
The date is 926 A.H or 92 A.H ? That's quite a difference. Anyway, I can read the names of the first four Califs of Islam. From up turning counter clockwise, they are: Abi Bakr Al Siddik, Omar Ben Al Khattab, Osman Ben Affan, and Ali Ben Abi Taleb. If the coin really dates back to the year 92 A.H, then the coin is from the Umayyad era , the early stage of Islam in matter of coinage in particular. Hope I'm not mistaken. Charles
Totally not. The Islamic coinage of circa 92 looked nothing like this. At the time, it was imitations of Sassanian drachms for the silver and some copper, and imitations of Byzantine folles for the bronze.
It's 926 AH. See that curved symbol below the digits? (forgot what it's called) That means 9, 2, and 6 are together.
OK. You're right. It's just the number 6 in Arabic wasn't clear to me. Still, did you come to a final conclusion whether the coin is an imitation or a real one?
nice one...i'm not super familiar with these, but i dig eastern squares...so one of these is on my to get list.
