Forget Years, Try Collecting Medieval Coins By The Month!

Some of you may have noticed my focus on coins with dates, but the most recent addition to my collection takes this a step further as the coin also lists both the month and year of minting. I'll provide some of the details in this post, but I would like to draw your attention to Ron's excellent earlier post (and superior coin) of this same type:

http://goccf.com/t/231893

From what I read (and so please correct me if I get something wrong...), Genghis Khan had sent a trade mission to the Khwarazmian Dynasty (covering many of the modern-day 'stans) in 1218 AD that was treated roughly. As retribution, he invaded and in the later months of the year AH 617 (1220/1221 AD), the Khwarazmians were quickly being pummeled by his army. After the cities of Bukhara and Samarkand (both in modern day Uzbekistan) fell, the Sultan Ala-ud-din Muhammed told the remaining cities in his realm that they were basically on their own. In the fourth month of AH 618 ("Rabi II" which corresponds to June or July of 1221 AD), the city of Kurzuwan (in modern day Afghanistan) was under siege and minted coins with not only the year, but also the month of their minting. This practice lasted into the fifth month of AH 618 ("Jumada al-Awwal") before abruptly stopping when the city fell and its inhabitants were generally slaughtered. Any captives would have been assimilated into the Mongol clan Sartuul.

The obv inscription contains the mint and the Kalima: "Kurzuwan/There is no God but Allah/Muhammad is the apostle of Allah" while the rev inscription has the date and in the center, "al-Malik".

The coins of these two months are not uncommon, with a couple dozen available on vcoins right now in the $25 to $40 range. Mine is somewhat typical of the series, with a good amount of the inscription off of the flan. It can be attributed as Album 1971.