I recently met a passionate collector with limited knowledge and lack of direction......very similar to myself He feels that one of the coins pictured below is a very early example of Islamic coinage, 13AH. I told him my initial feeling was that perhaps the coins in the bottom row probably were Mughal India issues under the reign of Akbar but the top row were most likely imitations or souvenirs issued much later. They appear to mimic Akbar’s coinage. Any ideas or suggestions? Sorry about the picture quality but that’s the best he could do.
Well, the first "post-reform" Islamic coins (featuring solely inscriptions) aren't until 77 AH, and they don't look like that anyway. The style is clearly from much later than that. The fact that it names the first four Caliphs is a religious statement, not a statement of who minted the coin. There is a date of 13, but (assuming this is an actual coin and not some fantasy piece) that's clearly a regnal year of the local ruler, which is pretty common on various later Islamic series.
Added to that the fact that most Islamic coins were round and the square shape was, I think, introduced considerably later, makes me think "fantasy coin".
