Isis To Issue Circulating Gold, Silver, Copper Coins? (Pics)

Don't leave it to me, actual Arabic speakers just laugh when I attempt my from-first-principles translations. But here's my best efforts at offering a translation, of the 5 dinars obverse. I'm not quite sure of the last word of the bottom line; it's not one of the traditional titles of the old Caliphate, as far as I can tell.



As for the entire concept, I'll repeat what I've said on other forums: I have yet to see any evidence that these "coins" are anything other than a gimmick being proposed by a sympathiser living outside of the territory ISIS controls. Much like the "Kurdistan" coins issued a few years ago by an American citizen of Kurdish descent. As far as making circulation coins, I'd believe it when I see it.

Still, it is no surprise to me that ISIS (or people purporting to speak on their behalf) are making such suggestions, for ideological reasons. The weight and fineness of the gold "dinar" and silver "dirham" are laid down in Sharia law. And this particular branch of Islam also teaches that zakat, the obligatory almsgiving of 2.5% of your wealth per year, cannot be given using credit cards, IOUs or other forms of debt - and modern pieces of paper money are considered such forms of debt. Under this strict interpretation, zakat must only be rendered either using "good money" (Sharia-legal dinars and dirhams) or in kind.

I suspect that if the starry-eyed zealots of ISIS actually try to implement a bullion-only monetary system, they would very quickly learn the impossibility of attempting to issue "good money" in the middle of a warzone. Gresham's Law will trump Sharia Law, every time. It's why the original Caliphate stopped issuing legal dinars and dirhams hundreds of years ago.