Here is an interesting falus with a dragon depicted on it. Persian and Afhgan falus coins had many animals depicted on them, out of which the dragon is probaly the most uncommon. Dragons weren't a part of folklore and culture of central Asia and Afghan, being mostly dominant in chinese and european culture. This coin which was told to me by the seller to be of safavid origin might have the dragon on it due to intermingling of cultures from the georgian part of the empire. Some persian/ georgian coins do have dragons on them, such as valentine #43,44 : In Falus coins, a dragon is depicted in a hamadan falus, valentine #28 under Persia. There are one or two coins with dragons on zeno.ru as well, one from tehran and one from the iranian qajjar dynasty. I havent found one similar to mine however, though my guess is it to be a variation of the hamadan falus with the dragon just facing to the left. Catalogue clippings from: Modern copper coins of the Muhammadan states - W.H. Valentine
Thanks for sharing. Interesting info. I have not seen any Central Asian coin with a dragon design before.
That is a really attractive new coin! Nice pick up. How many ancient or medieval coins have dragons on them? I can't think of that many. John
Awesome coin! Those civic coppers are very enigmatic, but don't be fooled. These are modern coins issued around the mid to late 1800s. The Indian sub-continent is full of these "ancient/medieval" looking, modern coins...
Yea, they are relatively modern, but I love the ancients forum community more for these ancient looking coins haha.
Not that I am complaining. I love these cast and hammered coins from that area and time period, but mine isn't as cool as yours: Afghanistan: Anonymous Civic Copper (1245 AH) AE Falus (Undocumented)
That's a great coin. Amazingly, a very good strike. Whitehead is a very handy book to have. I do have a small collection of Afghan falus', that one is a winner. Thanks for the post.
Terrific coin, @Muhammad Niazi. I'm as ignorant as anyone here about the series, but your observations about the likely cultural dynamics are richly evocative.
The mint name likely begins with the letter ا (alif), perhaps Iravan/ Yerevan (ايروان)? The text reads from the bottom with ظرب ("was struck") and فلوس ("falus") reasonably clear. The letter ا is prominent at lower right. Most of the mint name and date, if any, is lost. I don't think Hamadan is possible.
I think most people here appreciate hand made coins whatever age they are. I know I do, they have more character and individuality than machine produced coins. John
...YIPES! I FINALLY found the pics of the one medieval coin with a dragon I know of. (Well, all you get here are the tail and hind legs --but it's better than one I've seen on academia.edu.) Duchy of Bavaria, Heinrich X the Proud, denar of Regensburg. (Dealer's pics.) Rev. Warrior with nasal helmet, Norman-style, 'kite-shaped' shield and sword fighting a dragon, to left. Obv. Duke standing facing, with banner and shield. Cf. this article (waaaay down; the pages are unnumbered,so you'd have to really trawl for it): https://www.academia.edu/24323600/Medieval_Coins_of_Bavaria (...Better late than never, I guess! A whole slew of my older pics are saved under "Camera Uploads;" labelling all of them will be a project!)
What a fantastic coin!! A couple dragons, the first an Anglo Saxon sceat, and the second a Milanese grosso:
@Severus Alexander, yours are Brilliant! --Of Course, the Milanese stuff, with the serpent of the Visconti! ...Gotta feel sorry for the little kid who's getting eaten. But your sceat powerfully evokes the dragon motif in Germanic folklore, early enough to be common to Anglo-Saxon England, Scandinavia, medieval Germany, ...and (even! --no fan) Wagner.
DRAGON? Macedon, Amphipolis AE Semis, 21mm, 9.0g, 12h; 187-31BC Obv.: Laureate head of Zeus right. Rev.: AMΦIΠO / ΛITΩN; prow right, S to left, monograms to right. Reference: cf. SNG Cop 69 / Rare Ex: @John Anthony COMMENT: This is minted by locals in Amphipolis during the Roman Republic control of Macedonia. Clearly inspired by RR bronze types, with the local variations of a very long-necked figurehead
...Hmmm(pause)mmm.... You think that, being Macedonians and all, provincial as they were, before and after that little burp involving those pesky Philips and Alexanders, they were misinterpreting the whole motif?
LOL Or made the whole thing into an an elephant, which was more where I was going the first time.... --No, I know! it's some kind of fearsome, heretofore unrecorded aquatic Beast!
