Khwarezm dirhem of 596-617 H

[BACTRIANUMIS]

Dear Colleagues, please help me with this AR coin, 18 mm, 2.2 gr.
Thanks in advance!

[THCoins]

Style to me very much suggests a fairly early Ayyubid AR Dirham.
I am no specialist in this field,  so can not give you a more precise attribution.

[akona20]

I agree with Ayyubid.

[BACTRIANUMIS]

Thanks a lot dear Colleagues! I also found a similar stile with ARTUQIDS OF MARDIN, cant reed koufic unfortunately

[Manzikert]

Hi

It is actually a dirhem of the Khwarezmshah `Ala al-Din Muhammad, 596-617 H, see http://www.zeno.ru/showphoto.php?photo=124570

Quite why this type (which as Akona20 and THCoins rightly say is usually associated with the Ayyubids, and with the Artuqids) should crop up in central Asia as well I've no idea. Perhaps someone just saw one on his travels or in trade, liked it, and had enough influence with the Khwarezmian authorities to have it copied?

Alan

[BACTRIANUMIS]

Thanks a lot, Dear Alan! Admire your knowledge.
KR

[THCoins]

Great ! I keep learning something every day.

[akona20]

Yes I see the coin is attributed as such.

The six pointed star or hexagram I believe can be rightly call the Seal of Solomon.

The weight presented is a little interesting though

[Manzikert]

Well spotted, I'd missed the weight

I assume this is probably a half-dirhem that is rather overweight.

My dirhem is 3.49 gm and my half is 1.77 gm, so 0.5 gm overweight seems a little more plausible than 1.3 gm underweight if it was intended as a dirhem.

Album (A 1720, 1720A) says they are copied from the Ayyubid Aleppo coins.

Alan

[akona20]

Yes I checked Album, but the weight is a long way off for these.

[Afrasi]

Thanks to a friend, who found this informative topic at zeno:

http://www.zeno.ru/showphoto.php?photo=99415

[THCoins]

An interesting link, thanks !

[THCoins]

Browsing e-bay i find that German dealer Lanz is offering a lot (>20) of coins of this type in individual auctions. Like this one. These are both Drachm and half drachm types.
Looking better at these however, i am concerned. This because all these specimen seem to be die identical. And although the opening post picture in this thread is not super clear, i also think it is die identical to the ones offered by Lanz. Even more so, also on Zeno multiple die identical specimen are present. This worries me a lot as i can not imagine any recently discovered hoard to be almost fully comprized of die identical specimen.
Looking at the Lanz specimen, some have strange wear patterns, with deeply struck parts right next to relatively flat spots. This suggests that the surface of these were subject to physical treament (hammering) after striking.
Although i can not be fully sure these coins are fake, i thought it would be good to express my doubts in public. So possibly interested collectors can form their own opinion.

[Pellinore]

Thanks, I was thinking about buying one, but none of the dirhems I have seen are really very fine. The half-dirhems are looking as if the same die was used as for the one-dirhem: too large for the flan.

Could anybody help how these coins should be read? I believe (following Plant, p. 73 for the Ayyubid model) the obverse has the kalima in the corners and the reverse (that's the side with the S at the top and the foot inside the star) shows the mint and date in the corners. But still it's not easy to read what it says.

-- Paul

[THCoins]

Never tried to read the edge text on these. Just quickly glanceing at the one in this thread:
On the left pict reading anti-clockwise from 1 o'clock is "Zarb Sanat" so the year number is in the rest of the invisible edge spaces.
On the right pic starting at 5 o'clock is "Rasul Allah", fitting with end of the Kalima.

Anthony