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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 951783, member: 19463&quot;][ATTACH=CONFIG]90033[/ATTACH]</p><p>Most of you probably consider &#039;early medieval&#039; a term for Dark Ages in Western Europe but my interest in this date range is farther east.&nbsp; Very common are the bull and horseman coins of the &#039;Shahi kings&#039;.&nbsp; They were issued over a wide range of dates with only a few dating devices that read easily.&nbsp; If you want an early one, look for the legend Spalapati Deva and figures rendered in relief.&nbsp; Later coins are done in outline rather than real 3D.&nbsp; I&#039;ve yet to find a dealer who cares so asking for one has not been productive but I have pulled two out of pots full of mixed jitals.&nbsp; The one above (750-900 AD?) is the nicer of my two and cost me $6.&nbsp; I&#039;d gladly pay $12 for one twice as nice. <img src="styles/default/xenforo/clear.png" class="mceSmilieSprite mceSmilie2" alt=";)" unselectable="on" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=CONFIG]90036[/ATTACH]</p><p>All you medieval fans would love to have a coin of Charlemagne but I can&#039;t afford his little scrappy silver.&nbsp; However Charlemagne maintained diplomatic relation and exchanged gifts with Bagdad Caliph Harun al-Rashid whose silver coins are big and 1/10th the price but lack graven images as forbidden by Islamic law.&nbsp; That left a lot of room for legends including year dates (801 AD) if, of course you read the language.&nbsp; I don&#039;t so you can correct me if I got this one wrong.&nbsp; Harun al-Rashid is best known as the ruler in the Scheherazade story but exactly how much of that is factual is debatable.&nbsp; More likely correct is that the gifts to Charlemagne included a clock that struck the hours and albino elephants.&nbsp; </p><p>[ATTACH]90037.vB[/ATTACH]</p><p>When we think of the Persians and Sasanians we usually think of the earlier guys who fought with the Romans.&nbsp; The last of the Sasanians cross over into medieval times so qualify here.&nbsp; The example above is Yazdgerd III the last Sasanian king who also happened to be the grandson of a Byzantine Emperor.&nbsp; Again being able to read the script is not my strong point but this seems to be year 4 or 636 AD.&nbsp; Yasdgerd used 17 mints over a reign of 19 years so there are plenty of varieties and he isn&#039;t prolific compared to his grandfather Khusro II who ruled for twice as long and issued coins from so many places that I can&#039;t find a reference that claims to be sure of the number.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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