Received this as an "extra" in a delivery this morning. 22mm, 4.02gr. I would like to know 2 things so I can try to attribute it. 1/ Which way up am I supposed to be looking at it? 2/ Where should I start, Islamic?
Ran across these apps googling - haven't used them myself but maybe one can help https://coinoscope.com/ https://www.numiis.com/
I'll preface this by saying I am really bad with Islamic coins, so I'm just giving my beginner experience until someone knowledgeable makes this comment obsolete! I think you have the images oriented correctly. Compare to this photo of an Umayyad AE Fals: https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?id=9733550 I believe the denomination is usually described as a "Fals" (derived from Follis?). I don't know which is the obverse: I think that depends on which side has the Kalima (Islamic declaration of faith). I don't speak/read Arabic, but by comparing enough images you can usually find other examples using the same characters, and work out approximately what the legends are saying. When trying to look for matches on calligraphic types, the first thing I do separate out how many lines of text there are on each side. And which direction, horizontal vs. circular in the margins and other possibilities (e.g., three horizontal lines for your top photo; I'm less sure of the bottom, if maybe there's someone script in the margins). And if there's a bead border and/or any more legend in the margins. References I've used: https://zeno.ru/ is the popular standard online reference, so you could browse around, looking for a foothold. acsearch.info -- just searching for images to find something similar. For example, "Umayyad" "Fals" "Lines" = https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?term=fals+umay+"lines" ... or subtract Umayyad, since I don't really know that's what you have, and specify "three lines": https://www.acsearch.info/search.html?term=fals+"three+lines" Richard Plant wrote the popular volume Arabic Coins and How to Read Them, an intro text oriented toward collectors who don't already read Arabic (but a sophisticated intro, as Plant was very scholarly), if you can get it (it's still in high demand, but there have been reprints by Spink). You can also download the 2011 edition of Stephen Album's Checklist in PDF format from his website. It's a very widely used reference. BUT -- big "but" -- it doesn't use images, so if you're not an Arabic reader (like me) it's only useful insofar as you already know what you're looking at (I don't!) and/or use it alongside other illustrated refs.
@Curtis thank you, there is plenty of info you have provided to get me started. I wasn't expecting to receive anything but a Claudius II Alexandria Tetradrachm, and this "gift" was unexpected. I have no other Islamic coins and zero knowledge of them.
