Good morning. I have one more Islamic coin to share today. I won't be doing any major writing on it today as it is my birthday and I don't have the time. I'll simply leave it at this...this coin is of Caliph Hisham ibn 'Abd al-Malik, and was made around 739 AD. This is the caliph who was in charge of the Umayyad Caliphate when Charles Martel defeated the Islamic forces at the battle of Tours, thus ending the imminent threat of Islamic conquest of Europe. This is also the guy who failed to stamp out the Visigoth noble Pelagius, which resulted in the creation of the Christian kingdom of Asturias in northern Iberia (a deep mistake for the Muslims as it would result in the Spanish Reconquista down the line). In other words, if you are a fan of Iberian history and Frankish history, this is one Islamic coin to have to add depth and that extra special touch to your Frankish and early Islamic Iberian collections. ISLAMIC, Umayyad Caliphate. temp. Hisham ibn 'Abd al-Malik. AH 105-125 / AD 724-743. AR Dirham (26mm, 2.92 g, 8h). Wasit mint. Dated AH 122 (AD 739/40). Klat 715; Album 137; ICV 297.
Agreed, compared to my other Islamic coins, this one has the nicest script. It seems to have a touch of styling, and is not as cold as the later ones I have. Also, the lettering seems to be done with more care, and as a result look crispier. Compare them yourself! VS The obverse do seem repetitious despite the 500 years difference between the oldest and youngest of these coins...they all don't want you to forget that "There is no God but Allah." If you ask me, I doubt any Muslim would forget that, so if I had been a Muslim Caliph I would have been tempted to ditch the obvious slogan and go for a cooler message such as "There is no cooler Caliph than Sallent." or maybe "There is no more handsome and virile Caliph than Sallent"
Considering the problems that would arise for a US leader who might take off "In God We Trust" and what Victoria faced for her Godless Florins, I suspect Caliph Sallent would never have made it to year two. I find it interesting that these coins are like US coins. The legends give the date and mint but not the name of the ruler. Collectors add that to associate coins with people and events. That would be like calling the coin below a Woodrow Wilson or death commemorative for Buffalo Bill (died 1917 in Denver).
True, but you do have to admit it is more fun being able to associate them to the particular ruler, considering the age of these coins, the historic events at the time they were minted, and the fact that the empires that made them no longer exist. I have no doubt some collectors 900 or 1000 years from now will attribute a US 1929 Standing Liberty Quarter as a President Hoover Quarter Dollar...especially if the US has not been around for hundreds of years and the current names that we used for these coins (ie. Standing Liberty Quarter) are lost to history.
Very impressed by all those islamic coins you are posting. The early ones have great style and also a much better technical quality than their European contemporaries. Almost pure gold and silver, no weak spots, harmonious.
The Umayyad and Abbasids were huge and well organized Empires, so their coins from the 700s through 1200's was mostly extremely well made, and the silver was very high quality. The same does not apply to smaller Caliphates like coin #3 and #4 in my comparison post above. The silver from those smaller caliphates (Cordoba and Almohad) was still relatively good compared to a lot of the cheap debased Billon most European kingdoms were striking during the era, but the quality of the engravings and the strike tend to leave a lot to be desired...like the European coins of the era.
It's here! I have to say that it is just as I expected, a little larger than a US quarter, but much more thinner. I have no idea why Islamic coins were so thin, but this one is no different from the others I have in that respect. There is a hint of toning, and I'm not surprised the CNG auction pictures didn't capture it. They seem to always overflood their objects with light. The reverse is just as the CNG picture led me to believe, mostly good, showing a little bit of porosity on some portions of the edges of the reverse. This was evident from the auction pictures, so I'm not bothered in the least. Although the pictures don't capture it, and neither did CNG's auction image, you can see the signs of metal flow with the naked eye (and without magnification) at the edges of the arabic script. It's subtle but readily visible to the discerning eye of someone with ancient numismatics experience. I wasn't sure if these would show in Islamic coinage, but I guess it makes sense considering it was struck. I'd probably be worried if they weren't there.
How else can you make 2.9g of silver look like a quarter? Thin is in. My Siliharas drachm below is 13mm (half yours) diameter and 3.9g (a gram more). Which makes it look like you are getting more?
I wonder if the ancient populus liked their thin coins, or if they even cared what their coins looked like. In general, I prefer thicker coins. The Sassanians/Islamics/similar wafer-like coins look like foil document seals. Handling them makes me worry I will break them-- probably irrationally, since they've survived all these years. On the plus side, you can fit a ton of them in a 2x2 box. Another plus is having more room for devices and legends. At a coin show a couple of years ago there was a dealer who had nothing but wafer coins. I felt a bit sorry for them because they never had any customers when I walked by-- probably because the show was in the US. They probably fare better at European/Asian shows. I stopped by the booth once for a quick browse but since I don't read that language, they all looked the same to me. I have no idea if their prices were reasonable. They had thousands of coins and they all easily fit on one small table.
Happy Birthday, Sallent ... that's a sweet new thin baby!! ... ummm, but I've heard that it's girth that counts? Just jokes => You rock, my coin-friend ... congrats again on your great new OP-additions
Yah, it's kinda cool that a lot of the cool silver coins from that era were super thin examples, eh? (very neat that they've lasted for so many years without being damaged) ... my sweet Lorraine examples are also very thin (cool, thin silver sweeties) *edit* ... hmmm, apparently your sweet OP-example is from the 8th century (nice, that's even more cool)
I'm tempted to crack a joke about girth right now, but I'm not sure the mods would appreciate it, this being a family friendly forum. Anyway, about your coin, that is one short and chubby little thing you got there (the PG-13 version of the joke I had in mind ). Oh, and welcome back man. We missed you around here. Nice avatar pic! I always knew you were a freak.
That's good, more coins for me and little competition to drive their prices up. I know they are not everyone's cup of tea...they are in a language very alien to us and very thin coins, but they are well made, have good quality silver, and there is a lot of amazing history associated with the rulers that issued these coins. Just think, my coin could have been used to pay a soldier that fought at the Battle of Tours and in other engagements against Charles Martel and the Franks. Or it could have been used to pay for equipment, or for extra soldiers, for the Umayyad army's campaigns against the Kingdom of Asturias. Doesn't get more historic than that. This coin is in the middle of where the real action was at when it comes to European and Middle Eastern history in the mid-8th century.
