Posted 09/28/2019 1:14 pm
Thank you, Seeker!
So I dug deeper and found a couple of interesting articles about these coins (links below).
According to these, the coin is indeed from AH 1312 / AD 1895. 12 is simply the number of years since AH 1300. The coin masters at the time were copying Ottoman "Medjidie" dollars (20 Piaster coins) and some of them were simply confused by the meaning of the two numbers (accession and regnal years). So they just counted years since the start of the century. This also happened to be when the Khalifa was meant to begin his rule according to prophecies. In some cases, the coin masters were just integrating the number into the design.
The articles report a very messy situation regarding the minting process, with many coin masters having limbs amputated as punishment for counterfeiting coins, which led to unskilled workers having to take over the job. Each was using a new "recipe", sometimes involving just molten cutlery. In turn, this led to more amputations and people unable to carry on their duties.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/417157...tab_contents
https://www.jstor.org/stable/426797...tab_contents
So I dug deeper and found a couple of interesting articles about these coins (links below).
According to these, the coin is indeed from AH 1312 / AD 1895. 12 is simply the number of years since AH 1300. The coin masters at the time were copying Ottoman "Medjidie" dollars (20 Piaster coins) and some of them were simply confused by the meaning of the two numbers (accession and regnal years). So they just counted years since the start of the century. This also happened to be when the Khalifa was meant to begin his rule according to prophecies. In some cases, the coin masters were just integrating the number into the design.
The articles report a very messy situation regarding the minting process, with many coin masters having limbs amputated as punishment for counterfeiting coins, which led to unskilled workers having to take over the job. Each was using a new "recipe", sometimes involving just molten cutlery. In turn, this led to more amputations and people unable to carry on their duties.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/417157...tab_contents
https://www.jstor.org/stable/426797...tab_contents
Edited by stratocaster
09/28/2019 1:15 pm
09/28/2019 1:15 pm
