I must admit at having little strength in attributing Islamic coins. Can one or more members provide help in attributing the coins below? Any information or comments much appreciated. SRSnum
Sorry, I keep omitting dimensions and weight...from the top... First coin: 15 mm, 3.62 grams. second coin: 13.5 mm, 1.54 grams. third coin: 1 mm, 2.33 grams. SRSNUM
Here's some help : google search "how to read dates and denominations on Arabic coins" and you'll get a lot more. reading-arabic-numbers-and-dates.html
This is a nice link, but really only helpful if the coins used actual modern Arabic numbers. These do not, and this link will unfortunately not help the OP. @SRSNUM check the diameter of that last coin; seems off. Do an advanced search in numista with weight and diameter. Scroll down here and look at the 4 Gani from India. It’s close, but details are wrong; yours are too thick. I’m not versed in these, so this is the best I can do for you. https://en.numista.com/catalogue/in...&u=&f=&g=&tb=y&tc=y&tn=y&tp=y&tt=y&te=y&cat=y
On the top 2 , the writing may not even be Arabic anyway, and those 2 are certainly the oldest of the three. In India they use Hindi or Sanskrit, do they not? On the bottom one, it's the newest of the three, and I'm pretty sure it's Arabic and I believe I'm reading 3 Girsh in the middle of the coin in the bottom pic. It's really hard to tell if the coins are right side up, or up side down, or sideways. As for a date, only on the third coin, on the next to last pic, there's a series of numbers/letters on the bottom, that looks like S 119. I have no idea what the "S" lookalike could mean but the 119 could be part of a year. If the writing is not too old, then the Arabic numbers 1 and 9 are just like ours. BTW, are you sure your dimensions on the last coin are correct? You say 1 mm. Could you mean 10 mm or 11 mm ? We need to find a way to recruit some Middle Eastern folks to our Coin Talk !!
Third one could be eastern Arabic but also Indic, Persian, or Urdu. I can almost 100% assure you those are not the numbers 119. I believe that coin to be written in Persian and that be their script. Of course, I’m not that great with these languages, but after living in Iraq for a year, I’m decent at recognizing Modern Standard Arabic numbers. Those aren’t it, I’m afraid.
S86, These Arabic numbers you and I are both posting date from 622 AD, when they first became the norm for Arabic numbers. Arabic.htm I have no idea how old these coins are, but I'm only guessing that they're not 1397 years old (that's 2019 minus 622). They could be, I just have no idea for sure of their age. The best advice I can give the OP is to find someone who speaks, and reads, Arabic and ask them to please translate the coin. There are many places to find someone who can do that. The easiest might be at a Mosque. I used to live near one and just like at any Church, the attendees all gather outside after the services to chitchat before they go home. Just walk up and politely explain and ask for help. Good Luck.
Ooops...Yes...the 3rd coin is actually 15 mm. Seattlite...it seems to me that you have attributed the first coin correctly. Although my coin has more of the inscription off the flan, the rest of the devices appear to be exactly as the 4 gani on the Numista site to my eye. The date appears to be AH 723, with the 7 & 2 off the flan. It amazes me that you were able to identify the 4 gani by entering just the weight and diameter of the coin on the Numista site. Bravo! Hookman...Many thanks for your input and comments. I have a lot to learn...
First and third are Indian. First is Delhi sultans, Ghiyath al-din Tughluq. Third looks Mughal. The second coin could be Ayyubid.
I very much recommend against this. These are NOT Arabic coins, as I tried to make very clear. Persian is close to Arabic, which may explain your confusion, but they are not the same. The OP would have better luck finding people who speak Persian. These people come primarily from Iran, Afghanistan and Tajikistan.
The 3rd is Indian - a 1/5th rupee from Bombay (East India Company) - early 18th century. I can’t find the date on the coin, but maybe I don’t know where to look.
Many thanks jaytant. The coin appears to be a 1/5 Rupee of Shah Jahan II as you say. From much checking on the Web, it seems that in this case, the date is off the flan to the left of "S119" in the first image above. There appears to be the tiniest remnant of an Arabic '31' of the actual date 1131 remaining. At present, two of the three coins pictured have been attributed. This is far above my expectations. I wish to thank everyone who has given so much of their time and effort...still a lot more to learn.
Happy to help, but to be clear, they spoke and wrote Persian in India in this time, NOT Arabic. The numbers look the same, but the numbers and wording are Persian.
Sorry, but you are wrong on this. In Medieval India there were both Arab and Persian influences. In the Mughal era the Persian influences became more important. Before that there were already regular links between the Sind and coastal areas and the Arab peninsula. Also on coins one can find a mix of Arab and Persian, where the titles of the rulers and religious texts tend to be proper Arab, not Persian.
Wrong again. Only the calligraphy on the last coin is Persian in style. For example, the center line in the top coin is "Ghiyath al-Din" , غياث الدين for the first pic and "Tughluq Shah" تغلق شاه for the second pic. Just plain Arab.
Prompted by THCoins' post, I have been examining Ayyubid coins on the Numista site. As my knowledge of Arabic/Persian is virtually nil, I have used design elements only. It appears to me (using pattern recognition only) that the lettering and square within a "dotted square" motif of the coins of al-Salih Isma'il and al-Nasir Yusuf II are similar to my second coin. The coins illustrated in Numista are Dirhams (3 grams). My coin is about 1/2 the size of the coins illustrated (1.54 grams-1/2 Dirham?). Does any of this information help in attributing my coin or is this just wishful thinking on my part? Any information or comments by members is as always much appreciated. SRSNUM