The Crusades began in 1095 and lasted in the Holy Land until 1291. Some of their foes are called Turkomans. Some Turkoman coins are numismatically interesting for having figural types, unlike most other Arabic coins. Spenger and Sayles wrote a two-volume series Turkoman Figural Bronze Coins and their Iconography which covers the coins of the Artuqids (volume I) and Zengids (volume II). Unfortunately, Spengler took ill and died before a subsequent volume wrapping up the series with coins of the other dynasties could be written. It never happened. That leaves figural coins of other dynasties less well known. Broome's book A Survey of the Coinage of the Seljuks of Rum is a large volume which includes Seljuq figural bronze (There are not many different types). The Coinage of the Ayyubids by Paul Balog includes the figural types of the Ayyubids (plates 9-10, 16, 41-43). None of these cover the unusual minor dynasty of the coin below. Islamic Coins and Their Values by Tim Wilkes has it as 1296 with a photo but no discussion of the dynasty. Steve Album's Checklist of Islamic Coins has it as 1892.3 in the second edition. The Menkujakid (Mengüjek, spelling varies) Dynasty was founded after the Battle of Manzikert (a famous disastrous Byzantine-empire-reducing loss for the Byzantines) with branches at Erzincan and Divrigi (map below). This coin is smaller than most Turkoman bronzes. It is only 20-18 mm and 2.89 grams. 1167-1225, this coin precisely dated to AH 579 = AD 1183/4. Head left in hexagon. Arabic legend. Fakhr al-Din Bahramshah. Fakhr al-Dīn Bahramshāh is the best known Mengujekid ruler whose reign, in Erzincan, lasted for nearly sixty years until his death in 1225. I have a site on reference works for various collecting themes: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/catalogs/Themes.html One page is on Turkoman bronze and includes sale catalogs with important collections: http://augustuscoins.com/ed/catalogs/Turkoman.html When you have studied a series and looked many times at catalogs with major collections and you don't recognize a type, you might justifiably decide it is rare and worth more than it seems at first. That coin was an eBay coin and I kept raising my mental max as I looked through the references. When eSnipe executed it, it turned out to be high by 0.09 pounds. I was not the only one to know it was rare. Rarity actually has little to do with value unless the type belongs to a limited series, as I argue here. In this case, the Turkoman figural bronze series is limited to about 100 types, so the rarity of this type does matter. I didn't intend this thread to be about Turkoman coins, rather about unusual coins that nevertheless have some interest. Show us something we don't see every week.
Tribute AR coin of Armenian King Levon (Leo, Leon, etc) lV takvorin Arabic overstrike by Al-Nasr Mohamed circa 1337
Neat coin Warren! For unusual coins, here is a Mongol coin that the Genoese in Caffa countermarked with a Chi-Ro. It may well date from the time the Black Death first entered Caffa, and then spread to Europe. Italian States, Genoese Caffa 1360s? AE Pul, 17.29mm x 1.3 grams Obv.: Christogram countermark, from Genoese Caffa Rev.: ? anonymous Jujid
This one is not ancient but it is one of the latter coins, a Bavarian Taler, of the Holy Roman Empire. It is unusual I think because of the legend lettering around the edge:"Confido In Domino". "We Trust in Our Lord" Some of you may know more of the use of lettering and milling, serration(?) to help prevent shaving of the silver edges in the history of numismatics.. It is tongue in cheek however. Trust in our protector but have these letters along the edge anyway! It hints at the kind of humour sometimes found on the earliest RR coins. Of course maybe I have it all wrong as to why this legend is around the edge?
