I think this is an Arabic coin, but I don't understand what's written on it. The inscription on the front, which looks like "1799" is actually 1299 according to the arabic number table. I don't have the slightest clue about what the inscription on the back means. I hope someone can help me translate the text and maybe evaluate it. http://www.joyandbobby.com/jonx/annas/5_obv.jpg Above: front Below: back http://www.joyandbobby.com/jonx/annas/5_rev.jpg
I can't help you with what is written on it, but it's from Zanzibar and dated AH1299. The denomination is a Pysa. Somewhat easy to find, but they still bring decent money since so few coins are available from Zanzibar.
Kc700,the date AH1299 is actually 1882 AD.This Zanzibari Pysa always turns up,as we are always buying at least 1 of them in an old collection that is offloaded.The Zanzibari coins are of interest to British Commonwealth collectors such as myself.The AH1304 (1887) Pysa is far harder to find than what the mintage figures indicate.I finally picked one up a few months ago. Did you know that this coin was used as a source for the design of the AH1306 (1888) Mombasa Pice? Well, the obverse of that coin also has a pair of scales as well. The Islamic calendar system is a lunar calendar.The reason why a discrepancy occurs in converting the date,is because the Islamic year is 11 days shorter than the Christian year,which is why you have to take off 3% before adding the 621,because AH1 is 621 AD. Aidan.
The coin master AIDAN already did it ! I can help by translating what is written on the coin since Arabic is my mother tongue ! The word between two signs is الله which is ALLAH, god in Arabic Then AL SULTAN SAED BEN BARGHASH, the name of the sultan Then the word HAFEZUHU meaning protect and this word comes with the first word, ALLAH so it means may allah protect him.
Islamic-coins,I couldn't believe that I was bang-on with the date conversion.I needed to have this knowledge,as I occasionally see the odd coin from the Maldive Islands,which has both calendar systems,except the ones issued up to AH1331 (1913).Of course,the AH1304(1887) Bruneian Cent is a coin I have also got in my collection as well.Of course,some of the Indian Princely States used the AH calendar as well. Aidan.
No problem, there are many sites that convert from Gregorian to Hijri ( Islamic ) date . Here is the one I use all the time: http://prayer.al-islam.com/convert.asp?l=eng
Islamic-coins,here's another converter; www.sizes.com/time/cal_islam.htm . Did you know that there is also an AH (Anno Hegirae) (Hegira Year) conversion chart in the back of the Krause catalogues? That is also a cheat's way of converting the dates.Have a look,& you will see. Aidan.
Problem with both of those converters is they won't let you put in just the year without the month and date. Anyone know of a year-only converter? Would be helpful to just put in for example, AH 1337, and get what range of Gregorian dates that matches up with, or vice-versa, put in AD 1986 and get what range of Islamic dates that matches up with, as coins are dated by the year only and not by a specific date.
That would be a much tougher programming challenge than the existing converters, because of that 11-day per year slippage factor. I use the printed conversion list that appears in all volumes of the Krause SCWC series, in which you can look up the AH date and then go across to the next colum for the Gregorian calendar commencement date of that year, and then go down one row to compute the ending date as the day before the next year started. (Takes longer to explain than to do. ) PS - I sure don't understand what makes me a "cheater" by referring to a published list that someone else researched.
Roy,the reference to 'cheat's way' is only a tongue-in-cheek remark.You're right about the 11 day slippage, especially in calculating where in the Christian year the Islamic New Year is.As I have stated,the AH calendar is a lunar calendar,as opposed to the SH calendar that is used in Afghanistan & Iran. Aidan.
