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 Replies: 10 / Views: 1,911 |
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New Member
United States
18 Posts |
I've recently become interested (again) in my neglected ancient coins collection. I'm hoping I can find the motivation to begin identifying some of these. There is one coin in my small collection that has always escaped me as to what it is (besides being a coin, of course). Not sure if it's Greek, Roman, Byzantine, etc. It is very small compared to my other ancient coins. I received it in a random lot of uncleaned coins several years ago.   Sorry if the pictures are kind of blurry, I tried my best with using my Iphone. If it helps the bottom image can be seen in better clarity if you take a step back from your laptop/PC screen and view it from a farther distance. I'm assuming the bottom image shows possibly Greek letters (I should know after all, since I was teaching myself the language). Also wondering what material this coin is made of...bronze? Silver? |
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Moderator
 United States
23731 Posts |
 to the community It's Islamic, beyond that I can't tell you much more. |
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New Member
 United States
18 Posts |
For a long time, I actually believed this coin was Islamic. Of what little is on the coin, it doesn't look Green or Roman. Is there Arabic script?
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Moderator
United States
23731 Posts |
Sure looks like it to me.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4980 Posts |
I bet ski is right. maybe an ottoman acke?
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New Member
United States
18 Posts |
Do we have any idea as to what time period this coin could belong to? I know that the Ottoman Empire was established at the end of the 13 century, but I didn't know it lasted until as early as the 20th century. Is it more like that this is a medieval coin?
I'm assuming the coin is silver?
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1391 Posts |
I see what I am pretty sure are Arabic numbers on the bottom image. I think I read "952" or possibly "953."
Middle Eastern, Central Asia or India. These areas were producing hammered (what is usually thought of as medieval type coinage) well into the 20th century. There are even coins minted under the Soviet Union that were hammered from later became Kazakhstan.
Unfortunately these practices make it difficult to narrow down a coin by it's manufacturing style to a certain date. I have picked coins out of junk bin before that I was certain over a millennia old, only to find out that they were produced in India or Afghanistan less than a hundred years ago.
Edited by allranger
07/05/2014 8:05 pm
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New Member
United States
18 Posts |
Very interesting. It looks like the Arabic numbers read "982" to me. What could they mean? I know little about information found on Islamic coins. Do many Islamic coins contain numbers or mostly Arabic calligraphy?
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
946 Posts |
Ottoman Akche, accession year is 982 AH, which is 1574 AD, that would be Sultan Murad III.
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Moderator
Australia
16868 Posts |
Most Islamic coins bear a date. On older coins (say, earlier than AD 1300) the date is usually written out in full. On more modern coins the date is written in Arabic numerals. Two things to keep in mind. First, Islamic coins are dated in the Islamic calendar - there's a table in the Krause catalogues to convert one to another, or you can look up a date converter on the internet. It's not a simple addition or subtraction, because the Islamic year is only 354 days long. Second, Ottoman coins usually split the date between two numbers: an "accession date" - the year that particular Sultan came to power - and the "regnal year", how many years he had been in power. So converting an Ottoman dated coin (usually written in the catalogues something like "1327//4") to an AD date takes quite a bit of math.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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New Member
United States
18 Posts |
Wow, thank you both for the information. I honestly knew nothing about this coin and now you've identified the date for me! Fascinating stuff.
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Replies: 10 / Views: 1,911 |
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Posted 07/05/2014 5:00 pm
