Possibly a coin from Morocco

[ghipszky]

I think this coin is from Morocco. The date is confusing. This coin doesn't look that old.
Ginger

[malj1]

Yes Morocco; AH 1371 is about 1952 in our calendar.

[Prosit]

That star is pretty much indicitive of Morraco.  So whenever you see it, Morroco is the first place to look.
Dale

[ghipszky]

Thank you Dale and Malj1, Thank you very much for the help. This is another coin from a friend of mine who passed away 5 yrs ago. Before she passed she went through her vast collection of world coins and gave me alot of really interesting coins. So I have slowly been putting them here to learn more about them.
Is there anything special about this coin other than is older than me?
Ginger

[translateltd]

Is there anything special about this coin other than is older than me?
Ginger

Lots of interesting stuff - the design elements, the fact that Morocco tends to use "our" numbers rather than the digits we think of as being Arabic to write their dates and denominations (hence the confusion for lots of people when they see dates written out as "1371" or "1289" or whatever), some peculiarities about the Arabic alphabet as used in Morocco (they put a dot *under* the F (as in Franc), whereas it normally goes over that letter in the rest of the Arab world), and while I haven't measured it exactly, it looks to be the same size and composition as the aluminium-bronze 10-franc coins used in France in the early part of the 1950s, suggesting parity between the currencies at the time - Peter may well know more than me about that one.  Also note the designer's name written out in Latin letters and the Paris Mint privy marks ...

[malj1]

The Moroccan coin most frequently encountered that creates puzzlement is this 3 Falus of 1284; its often thought to be nearly 800 years old, as indeed it looks, but is in fact 1867.

 

[Figleaf]

The five-pointed star comes back in the Moroccon flag. As for dates and date conversions, my favourite page is this one, created by one of our members. Your coin is dated in the moslim system, lunar years, so look for "lunar hejira" in the left sidebar for more information.

Martin is quite right, a vending machine would not "see" a difference between your coin and the French coin below. Same metal, same size, same weight, same mint. Given the system difference, even the date is the same (on lower values, there is a Christian solar date also) and in both cases, the same date was used for years (frozen date.) At the time, decolonization had started (1947 India) in earnest and France was desperately trying to minimalise its participation. It had made Algeria part of France (they still do that for their remaining colonial flyspecks) and encouraged French families to move to North Africa. This coin would have been immediately recognizable to a French family.

Yet the coin is also very different. That's not just the designer. The French coin is signed G(eorges) Guiraud, the Moroccan coin is signed J. Hainaut. The female head (Marianne) and the gallic cock are unacceptable to Moslims, so they were replaced by the traditional Moroccan pentagram. Morocco had its own emperor, Mohammed Ben Jussuf, it uses Arabic script and the Arabic dating system. In spite of all the resemblances, the coin also shows Morocco's own identity.

Peter

[ghipszky]

Thanks guys, I will probably read this a few times before all the information really sinks in.
Ginger