Hi All, Not sure if you are aware, but Stephen Album's "Checklist of Islamic Coins, 3rd Edition (2011)" is now available as a free download. Look for the link at https://db.stevealbum.com/php/albumcat.php It may be freely distributed for research and collecting purposes. It may not be reproduced for commercial purposes or for a profit. A single copy may be printed for personal use only. (Though it would likely be less expensive to just buy an official softcover copy from him!). All copyrights remain the sole property of Stephen Album and/or Stephen Album Rare Coins Inc. in Santa Rosa, California. © 2020 Stephen Album Rare Coins Inc. http://www.stevealbum.com 324 Pages, ±6000 listings, No Plates. Numbered list of coin-issuing Islamic rulers from c.652 to c.1890 by denomination and often by type. Brief introduction to Islamic coin collecting & short notes on coinage and standard references throughout. Bibliography with much background information. Six-level rarity guide. Includes North Africa, the Middle East, Anatolia & the Caucasus, and Central Asia. [- Broucheion: I am in no way affiliated with Mr Album or his company. I have been a grateful user of the print copy.]
That's wonderful news – thanks for the link! I had tried to purchase a copy of Album's Checklist in the past, but it was out of print and used copies tended to be ridiculously expensive. And since the institutional library I usually frequent in order to look up numismatic references is currently closed due to the Corona crisis, I unfortunately didn't have access to this book in the last weeks. I immediately downloaded the pdf file. Now, I can finally add proper catalogue references to some of my more recent medieval acquisitions: Abbasid Caliphate, under Harun al-Rashid, AR dirham, 787/8 AD (171 AH), Al-Abbasiyah mint. Obv: beginning of kalima (“There is no deity except / (the one) God alone / He has no equal”), mint-date-formula around. Rev: second part of kalima (“Muhammad / is the Messenger / of God"); citing governor Yazid in lower field; around, Surah IX, 33 (“Muhammad is the messenger of God. He sent him with guidance and the true religion to reveal it to all religions even if the polytheists abhor it”). 23.5mm; 2.94g. Ref: Album 219.2. Ex Allen G. Berman. Umayyads in Spain (Emirate of Córdoba), under al-Hakam I (Alhaquén), AR dirham, 805/6 AD (190 AH), Al-Andalus mint. Obv: beginning of kalima, mint-date-formula around. Rev: Surah 112 and IX, 33. 26.5mm, 2.56g. Miles 81c; Album 341. Great Mongols, under Genghis (Chingiz) Khan or slightly later, BI jital, 1220s/1230s AD, Nimruz (Sistan) mint. Obv: "qa’an / al-‘adil" ('the just khan'). Rev: " zarb-i/ Nimruz" ('struck in Nimruz'). 14.5mm, 3.42g. Ref: Tye –; Album A1973. Ayyubids of Aleppo, An-Nasir Yusuf (“al-Nasir Yusuf II”), AR dirham, 1250–1259 AD, Dimashq (Damascus mint). Obv: regent’s title in square, circle with marginal inscription around. Rev: title of caliph al-Musta‘sim in square, circle with marginal inscription around. Ref: Album 843.1. 23mm, 2.7g. Also, the foreword is worth reading. Note what Mr. Album has to say about slabbing: "If acquisition of rare Islamic coins comes to be regarded more as investment than numismatic enjoyment, it is likely that slabbing Islamic coins will come to predominate for expensive items. Personally, I find the very concept utterly disgusting, as an obnoxious disregard for the intellectual pleasure of collecting." (p.6). There is nothing to add.
This is a great improvement for anybody collecting older Islamic coins. Naturally, you can search text. And it looks a lot better now it is showing itself in lively functional colors.
What an excellent resource. It's a shame I don't collect the coinage really haha. It's an enjoyable thing to browse regardless.
I've got 5 Islamic coins, a couple are bronze fals and I have 3 silver dirhems that I have not really attributed. Interestingly at Berkeley we had a Central Asian history course that allowed us to study the silver coinage of Buhkara and Samarkand which was held in the Lowie Museum. The coins were on the 2nd level of the basement, had hundreds of the coins which unfortunately were not out on display. Mostly they just said "There is no god but god, and Muhammad is his messenger" we translated the inscriptions as part of the course work. Our professor, John Masson Smith preferred the translation as "prophet" however.
I first met Steve Album in 1976, and got to know him reasonably well over the years. Probably the only guy I have ever met who I would call a genius, without having doubts. He could be a very hard man to do business with sometimes, but when it came to study of the coins, he always has been the most generous with his time. This particular act of generosity concerning his catalogue is typical of the man, and an act that posterity will surely long remember. Rob T
Great to see the Album book free online. For anyone interested in Early Oriental coins there is a second book that I judge really really needs to be made more accessible. That is the Gupta/Hardaker tables for the attribution of the Magadha/Mauryan PMC's. The Revised 2014 edition is maybe still in print, or perhaps might be reprinted. But just putting the tables of types up to the web from the defunct 1985 edition would be a big help to people starting out - and would probably boost sales of a later edition in the long run. Am not sure who now holds the copyright however. I suppose IIRN might be best placed to take this forward... Rob T
