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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;EWC3, post: 3118325, member: 93416&quot;]The situation is a little complicated.&nbsp; The official standard seems to be 60 grains (within a grain system that still existed in Egypt in the 19th century, and would theoretically exactly fall somewhere between 2.92g and 2.93g).&nbsp; However, it seems dirhems remained legal tender while their weight remained above 2/3&nbsp; mithcal thus c. 4.25g x 2/3 = c. 2.83g.&nbsp; This seems to have consequences - most circulated Umayyad and early Abbasid dirhems are slightly clipped.&nbsp; So to judge the issue weight you have to look at nice minty ones like the one I pointed to.</p><p><br /></p><p>As to exactness, it varies with mint and indeed mint master.&nbsp; Miles judged the best mint masters at the best mints would manage a spread of just 2.91 to 2.95 for all their coins, and 2.92 or 2.93 for most of them.&nbsp; I have checked this to some extent - it seems to me to be true for Umayyad Wasit most of the time, and sometimes for the Abbasids, eg Baghdad just after 190H.&nbsp; Other times, (or at minor mints) the spread might be as much as 2.88g to 2.97g</p><p><br /></p><p>All this finished after about 210H - when the Arabs abolished weight standards for coins - but that is another story[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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