Can anyone tell me what country these coins are from? I got them with a bunch of other foreign coins at a flea market in Sinsheim Germany. Also does anyone know how to convert the muslem years to christian years? DO you just add 620 years to the muslem date?
Both from Egypt. The silver coloured one is 5 milimes 1972. The denomination side is upside down. The big "O" is an Islamic 5. It's KM#a425. The gold coloured one is a 5 piastres 1992, (and the denomination side is upside down too). The flat part of the big O is the bottom. It's KM#731. For converting the years, there are plenty of sites on the internet which have a date converter. Try to "google" it. D68 Try this site: http://www.sizes.com/time/cal_islam.htm
What makes it much more complicated than that is that the Muslim calendar year is 10-11 days shorter than the concurrent western calendar year. The site posted by Dutch68 is the best quick guide to the differences I have seen, and it's converter works perfectly.
Why would you need to convert them? Most modern Egyptian coins have both the Christian and the Hijriya (Muslim) dates on them. In this case 1972 AD = 1392 AH and 1992 AD = 1413 AH
If the Egyptian coins were the only coins in the world you are very right, but there are plenty of countries which only use the Hijriya date.....and for those countries the converter can be very helpfull. Okay this post is about Egyptian coins, but it is a very interesting and usefull link. As for the numbers, this might be a little help: D68
The Muslum year (AH) is about 11 days longer, not shorter than the Christian calendar. This is because the AH calendar is made up of 13 lunar months of 29 days. You do have to be careful though because some countries have used different calendars at different times. Sometimes using AH dates, and sometimes using SH dates which use the 12 month solar calendar that we do. For SH dates you just add 622 to the date to convert it to AD The conversion for AH dates is (AH date * .97)+622. The 622 is because they date their calendar begining from Mohammads flight from Mecca in 622 AD.
Condor101,that is actually wrong.The AH calendar is 11 days shorter for the year.The AH date is a lunar date,whereas,an SH date is a solar date.The solar calendar is used only in Iran & Afghanistan.Bangladesh has never used either AH or SH dates on their coins,but they use the standard calendar,but with the numerals rendered in Bengali. Aidan.
I have to respectfully disagree with you on that. For example, the table of dates in the Krause catalog says that current year AH1426 began on February 10, 2005, and will end on January 30, 2006. The Jewish calendar has both 12 and 13 month years during a repetitive cycle, which is why Rosh Hashanoh always comes in the fall, unlike the Muslim new year which cycles through the seasons. The Chinese year is also a lunar year, with adjustments to keep New Year in the winter and approximately synced with the western solar year.
Well I know for a FACT that their 'Weekends' are on Thursday's and Fridays. Friday's are the days they chop off body parts of some criminals. Hands for a thief, the head for more serious offences. Chop-Chop square... Bone
Bone,that is not correct.The Islamic holy day of the week is Friday, which is why there is a mosque in the Maldive Islands that is called the Friday Mosque.About cutting off body parts,that is not normal part of Islamic culture.Even then,only some Islamic countries carry out sentences of cutting of hands & executions. Aidan.
Saudi Arabia is the most prominent of the countries that do it, and yes, they do the executions, amputations, etc., on Fridays after noon prayers. And many Islamic countries are adopting the Friday-Saturday weekend in order to stay closer to the rhythms of Western trading partners.
