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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;EWC3, post: 3845146, member: 93416&quot;]That’s a lovely coin Doug – is it yours?</p><p><br /></p><p>These early heavy jitals were known almost exclusively from a small group in the BM. Over the years I think only two ever came my way - and I looked at a lot of Shahi jitals. (I think I found three Bhimas [T.11] - tells you how rare these T.1 - 2 things are.)</p><p><br /></p><p>Am not sure it I mentioned this before – but at 4.24g this is a Hindu coin that seems to be spot on for the weight of the Islamic mithcal. Now - analysis of later Shahi Jitals shows them about 70% pure silver. But to my knowledge, nobody ever tested the early heavy issues.</p><p><br /></p><p>The reason I think this fact is important is that after about 850 AD or so, a new definition of the Islamic dirhem emerged as being 7/10 mithcal (c. 2.97g). Now if these coins are a 70% fine mithcal, that would make them intrinsically a sort of dirhem.</p><p><br /></p><p>That finding would tell us a lot:</p><p><br /></p><p>Firstly it would help give us a date for the first jital issues, a matter that still seems obscure.</p><p><br /></p><p>Secondly, we already seem to know that the European silver penny to the west was apparently crucially inspired in important ways by the Islamic dirhem. So, it would be very interesting if to the East the reviving early medieval coinage was also crucially inspired in important ways by the Islamic dirhem.</p><p><br /></p><p>Rob T[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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