Unusual coinage series - Larin of Arabia. BI TawilahTawilah

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.

 

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Looks like eyebrow pluckers. Never seen those before. Interesting though.

 

Interesting to say the least!

 

Thanks for the informative thread Loong Siew.

Here is a Larin from my collection & the thread I posted (my attempt at humor). https://www.cointalk.com/threads/la...ian-seaboards-–-counterfeit-detection.271102/

 

Thanks.. I have known of at least 1 collector who passed them off as a joke or thought they could have been thrown out as poor quality hairpins.. Haha.

Here is a write up on the Ceylonese equivalent

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/un...ese-kandyan-silver-larin.269487/#post-2251637

 

These are neat items! Are they rare, or easy to find?

 

Unusual and cool!!!

 

Nice.

 

Thanks.. Unusual coins are fun to collect as they make good discussion pieces..

Larins in general are fairly scarce. But the Arabian equivalent like this is much scarcer than the originals. I believe their limited distribution has a significant contributing factor.

 

18th century Modern Larin LOL!

Here is an earlier one from Ceylon.

 

Beautiful Larin @Ancientnoob .. You cornered the Ceylonese Larin market lol

 

Ha thats right! Go ahead try and find one!

 

I want to get one, but they won't fit on a lighthouse 2x2 cardboard holder. Or would it?

 

what a strange currency! once you've seen one, they're kind of hard to forget though aren't they?

 

Well, this is a timely post. The numismatic archaeology team at the Tiffily dig had an unexpected find: a hemilarin. Based on its crude style, current scholarship suggests an earlier date of issue, perhaps 15th century. The team's opinion is, however, divided. Almost half of the researchers argue that it is barbarous, and one now discredited team member felt it was a modern fake.

Metallurgic analysis reveals the following alloy: 93.5% silver, 6.5% copper, and a small amount of germanium.


TIFFILY, Tiphonia
c. 15th century CE
AR hemilarin, 2.9 gm
21 mm x 14 mm x 3 mm

 

One like my example or ANoob's example should fit in a 2x2. A long hairpin type might not fit in a 2x2. The size wouldn't stop me from getting an attractive genuine Larin.

 

ha thats convincing...

 

Thanks. I know it sounds silly, but that's how I store my coins. So it's an important issue for me.

 

Who's that clown? Run them off the dig! Oh, if they find another one, I call dibs.