Needless to say, I like this coin! But where and when was it made? It is 16 mm and weighs 3.1 grams. Because of the weight, my guess is that it is a 1/4 rupee. I visited a 19th century world catalog and found some details that remind me of those of Afghanistan, but I found nothing definite. On the other hand, they don't have many 1/4 rupee pictures in the book. Anyone have any information about this one? richie
While scanning coins in the Fitzwilliam collection, I came across this one. Could my coin be related?
Here's more information from the Fitzwilliams site. Maker/s‘Abd al-Ahad (1886-1910) (ruler) Haidar Tora (1800-26) struck in the name of (ruler) Bukhara (mint) CategorycoinNametenga (denomination) Islamic (Series) Later Central Asia (subseries) Manghits of Bukhara (subsubseries) Material/s silverDimensionsimage(height): 16 mm image(width): 16 mm die axis: 270 degrees weight: 3.15 gDate1890 to 1891 I have fragments of a 19th century world catalog. Could someone look and see if there is a relationship? thanks, richie
I have some trouble correlating your coin with the example I see in Krause, which is KM#63, Khanate of Bukhara. The weight and the diameter do check out, however. The date is 130-, so that would further indication. I don't know anything about coins from this area, can't really say more.
I don't think the coins were minted in the same place. I do see some differences. But most of the difference can be attributed to each coins final posiition on their respective flans. Would you mind posting the values for this coin? Mind you, I don't want to sell it and I'd love it the same if it were worth $1.50. But I am curious. richie
If they are worth $1.50 each, I'll take 20. That is an interesting coin. The Snakes on one side and the Bird with a halo like object above it makes me think of Heaven and Hell. Very cool. What are the images supposed to be ? Please humor me, as I am COMPLETELY ignorant concerning ancient coins.
I wish I could humor you. The jokes I know don't seem quite relevant here. The "snakes" and dots are letters in Arabic. Under neath the most serpentine of shapes are the numbers 1 (which looks like our one), 3, which looks like a jagged "r" and 0, which looks like a dot. My guess is that a fourth number is missing from the coin on the right because when the flan was hit, it was hit off centered. The full date would be something like 1301, let's say, in the Arabic luner system or about 1894 in our AD system. The halo is probably a symbol for either the king who minted the coin, or the place where the coin was minted. The coin isn't really old at all, for all of its appearance. It's a 19th century coin, but it is hand made, hammered by a man, not a machine. It is from Bukhara in central Asia, a city once one of the most sophisticated in the world. In the 15th century, for hygiene or for education, you would have chosen Bukhara over London. In the late 19th century, the Khanate of Bukhara was absorbed within the Empire of Russia.