Got some coins from an distinguished older gentleman a few years back. He told me he found them when building his home in Iraq, they were buried in a glass bottle. I know that one of them is from tabaristan, not sure about the others. I'm looking to sell these, should I use ebay? Any info on the other coins, value, and how to sell? Thanks.
The Tabaristan Sasanian bust/fire altar coin was issued under the rule of Hani (787-791AD). Can't read the others well enough to attribute. The gold ones might be worth auctioning.
He just gave me these coins out of the bottle and he kept the rest of them. There could be potentially a bunch more. I want to tell him what they may be worth and see if he wants to sell or hold onto them.
I have no idea what these coins would sell for. I don't even know what most of them are or if they're real or not.
Apart from the Tabaristan coin, they are all Abbasids I think. When they are not rare variants or from rare mints, the silver coins might fetch some tens of dollars each, and the gold ones about 200-250.
Thanks everyone I appreciate your help! I thought they would be worth more based off a quick eBay search. The lower value puts off selling them anytime soon. I was hoping for more. Thanks again.
I see one dinar is much larger than the other. Is the weight different? A dinar should weigh about 4,0-4,4 gr. Stephen Album (in Santa Rosa) is the best USA seller of this type of coin. You could try and compare your coins with the ones in his last auction.
a great friend. those coins look great. I especially like the center gold 1. wow nice grade on that 1 these coins look islamic. does this mean they are from Iraq/Iran ? what date is the center gold 1 ? I would like to do more research on the center gold coin.
I believe this is an Abbasid dinar from the 10th century AD, yes, an Islamic coin full of theological formulas / prayers. It might be from the area that's now Iraq, but the Abbasid Caliphate had 50 or 100 mints, it was a vast empire. On a coin of this quality, the year and mint surely are easy to find. I have a book about this (by Richard Plant), but you need only a few pages of it to read the date and mint. I think, too, that it's a very desirable coin for its excellent condition and beautiful calligraphy.
