15th Century Aq Qoyunlu Ae Fals

Several years ago I bought this coin, on impulse, from a respected dealer figuring I would have some fun in researching its identity & history. It was described as a 17th century Iranian Fals.

I initially, searched the South Asian Department on the American Numismatic Society website. No luck there so I moved on to the Islamic Department and this is an entry I found:-

"AE Fals, Region - Uncertain, Locality - Uncertain. 0000.999.45593
Obverse: Lion r and Sun
Reverse: Hexagram
Department: Islamic

Descriptive information: Object type: Coin Dynasty: Aq Qoyunlu
Date on object: xxx
Notes: Identified by: S. Heidemann

Denomination: Fals
Material: AE
Department: Islamic
Era: H"

Unfortunately there was no illustration of the coin to compare with mine nor a weight or size but having searched through many hundreds of coin descriptions and photographs this was the closest match

I was able to contact Prof. Dr Stefan Heidemann, by email, he is a leading authority on numismatics of the Islamic World. (at the time he was an Associate Curator of Islamic Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).

I sent photos of the coin together with weight and dimensions.

Within a short period of time Prof Dr Heidemann kindly responded and identified my coin as an AE Fals Aq Qoyunlu dynasty, 15th century, region probably Northern Mesopotamia. In very good condition for its age!

The Aq Qoyunlu dynasty covered the period 1378-1508 and was a tribal federation covering present day Eastern Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Northern Iraq and Iran.

I thought this personal research experience might be of interest to some newer members of the CCF.