Persia. Safavid Dynasty. Abu'l Muzaffar Ismail I (1501-1524) Silver Larin. Comprised of high grade silver wires bent and stamped with the year and other official persian inscriptions. Also known as hairpin silver money given their design, they were issued by the Safavid Dynasty of Persia mainly for trade particularly with the Indian Ocean and eastern Arabia. The name is derived from the city of Lars in Persia where it apparently originated. SAUDI ARABIA: BI tawilah (larin) (3.17g) (al-Hafif), ND, Mitch-2303/04, unread Ottoman legend on both sides, Very Good to Fine. Struck in the 18th century in the name of the Ottoman sultans at Hofuf, the capital of the Ottoman province of el-Hasa in the Eastern Arabian peninsula. Whilst originating from Safavid Persia from the province of Lars (thus the word larin), the popularity as a trade coin spread across much of the Levant and also to Southern India particularly Ceylon and Maldives. There they took on a distinctive fish hook design with intelligible fantasy Persian scripts. This specimen from Eastern Arabia however is a local variant and of lower silver purity (thus billon) and thus was issued and used probably as local trade coinage or equivalent. Needless to say their low silver purity made them unpopular as trade coinage and thus their issue and circulation is thus significantly scarcer than their Persian counterparts.
Nice @Loong Siew , I always thought this type of currency were interesting. Simple expression of value with a wire stamped with inscription, then folded to store (maybe by clipping on your clothes) and to make it smaller/portable.
Thanks @Alegandron .. these were very likely minted with portability and convenience in mind like you mention. The design also influenced the southern Indian larins in Ceylon and the Maldives as well although those were bent into a fish hook shape as described in some earlier posts
I enjoy the eclectic. You have gotten me to think about sub-categories of collecting. I have several non-standard coins / monies that are not the typical definition of a round coin with a message and/or design on each side. Perhaps pulling together a subcategory of non-standard currency collection would be cool. This would span the globe and represent Man's creativeness if storing value, facilitating transactions, and communicating ideals through monies. Kinda cool thought you elicited Mr @Loong Siew , Thanks! (Yeah, I know, it has been done before...but now I have an idea to turn my Grandkids on to collecting...)
It's my pleasure @Alegandron .. coin collecting like you said is a fascinating study and appreciation of man's creativity and artistic expressions through history. If you do pull something like this together, I would be more than happy to support... in fact many of these aren't even ancient. Although I do draw the line with the many artistic modern pieces coming from the likes of Niue and Cook Islands for instance. Those in my opinion are pure jewellery and art pieces as opposed to any historical or numismatic significance
Fascinating type!! I can almost image how widely eclectic my collection would be if I had a far larger coin budget
Very true. Though I heard the reason why it was a hook was for convenience over the dress they were wearing
