The Benduqi is a small gold coin of Morocco, weighing 3.5 grams and about the size of a US dime. Gold coins are rare from Morocco. While the mintages of these tiny hammered coins was not recorded, the known populations of these coins is quite low. Occasionally they come up for sale, however. I've been able to locate 4 or 5 sales of the current date. They aren't popular because they are small and crude, so values are actually quite low. This is now my second benduqi. I'm not working on a set of them, per se, because they are so hard to find that attempting a date set seems like it would require significant amounts of luck and patience. This coin was minted in AH1247, which is 1831 AD. It is raw, and I'd grade it VF, with beautiful original gold color. The design is very basic - it consists simply of the date and the mint name, encircling a flower. I hope you enjoy viewing this rare coin!
I do like crude pieces, I think they have a certain innate charm. I especially like the crude engraved details, such as all the extra bits on the 4 and 7 (honestly, I think the engraver probably had no idea what a "4" or a "7" was and was trying to make the script more elaborate, like the Arabic letters). I just wish the strike was more complete. That whole blank area is extremely common on benduqi, but I'd prefer to avoid it if they were common enough to be picky.
Not to necro-post or anything, but rather than start a new thread, I figured I'd give an update on this coin: I sent it to NGC, and they called it AU-58!
