Just thought I'd share my latest acquisition for April 1: Sultanate of Uqbar. Invisible dirham. Sultan Kadhbat 'Abril (c. 1170- 1140 AD). Obverse: Bust of sultan facing, one eye closed, tongue out. Reverse: Entire text of Shah-Nameh. 31.4373164 mm, 3.14159 g. Apgar score: 8. Moh hardness: 11. The history of Uqbar is too well-known to require explanation here. However, these invisible dirhams are worthy of note. They were issued by the notorious Mad Sultan, Kadhbat 'Abril, who wanted to make it easy for the wealthy to hide their coins in plain sight. However, the coins proved unpopular when both merchants and customers found it impossible to tell when they had been short-changed. An article on the series by Dr. Avril Poisson is due to be published in the next issue of Numismatic HindQuarterly. Please share your April 1 coins.
[guffaw] Awesome Moh's 11?! That is one hard pi-weight invisidirham! Quite a robust Apgar score too ... Relevant to the day: These are the first known coins from ancient Tiffily, a small now-submerged ancient island nation somewhere off the west coast of Anatolia. The exact location is being withheld to prevent opportunists from disturbing the historic site. Dive teams are methodically excavating the city. In addition to coins and the usual remains of ancient civilizations, engraved tablets have also been found and archaeologists are currently working on transcriptions. Apparently, these tablets record the history of Tiffily, including myths and religious beliefs. To date, several coins have been found at the underwater dig site. All have the same iconography: a winged iguana which the researchers have dubbed "Iguanasus". Hopefully, translation of the texts will reveal more details about this mysterious creature and Tiphonian culture. TIFFILY, Tiphonia c. 5th century BCE AR18, 7.4 gm, and AR 17, 7.4 gm Obv: Forepart of winged iguana left Rev: Monogram within dotted square, incuse Ref: SNG Tiffily 1 and 2, respectively This, and one other of similar size and weight, are puzzling. Metallurgic analysis shows them to be 99.9% silver yet they are somewhat porous. Perhaps the copper leached out over the centuries. These three coins are thought to be older than the rest. However, the dies are quite similar. Current thinking is that coins 1-3 were cast rather than struck. TIFFILY, Tiphonia c. 5th century BCE AR 16, 6.0 gm Obv: Forepart of winged iguana left Rev: Monogram within dotted square, incuse Ref: SNG Tiffily 4 This coin is missing from the research lab and it is feared that an unscrupulous member of the archaeology team has sold it on the black market. TIFFILY, Tiphonia c. 5th century BCE AR 16, 7.5 gm Obv: Forepart of winged iguana left Rev: Monogram within dotted square, incuse Ref: SNG Tiffily 5 Most of the coins, including this one, are of terrible workmanship. One would think that these mint workers had no idea what they were doing. Clearly there was no quality control. TIFFILY, Tiphonia c. 5th century BCE AR tetradrachm (Rhodian standard), 15 gm Obv: Forepart of winged iguana left Rev: Monogram within dotted square, incuse Ref: SNG Tiffily 10 This coin is also missing and feared sold. Metallurgic analysis reveals that all Tiphonian coins found so far are an alloy of 90% silver and 10% copper (oddly, the precise alloy of 20th century US silver coins. Huh) except for SNG Tiffily 1-3, which are 99.9% silver.
I know a jewelrer in Hialeah, FL who will melt that for you into unmarked bars. No questions asked. I bet you that's what the real thieves did with it.
I bought a coin of Emperor Grog, Ruler of Omicron Gamma 7, and apparently also Pharaoh of Egypt. And you know it is legit because a British gossip tabloid says so...so what more proof do we need? Sounds pretty scholarly to me. https://www.thesun.co.uk/living/197...hat-aliens-lived-among-the-ancient-egyptians/
It doesn't count until you send it to get slabbed. Don't worry about the cost, you can mark it up x10 to recoup your slabbing fee.
