Afghan medallions

[jkk]

These two are representative of four more (one more Cu/Ni, three more bronze) I've been asked to research. They came with a large hoard of circa 1900 Afghan coins, and from the design I presume them also to be Afghan. Not only can one see where the hanger loop broke off, but I have others with the loops intact. I believe they are medallions, not coins, but would like to know what they were called, what they mean, and how to look up their valuation. Thanks!

Top: believed Cu/Ni, 30.12g, 39.53mm
Bottom: believed bronze, 27.91g, 38.06mm

[eurocoin]

You are right in thinking that these are medals. The top one has what appears to be the date 1895 on it (۱۳۱۲). I do not understand why the date is divided though. There seems to be no reason for it.

[jkk]

That makes no sense to me either, about the divided date (though its clear readability is a major help in identification). With no denomination and a conspicuous blank in the center reverse, I'd have thought them tokens or medallions even without the stubs of missing loops. I wonder what kind of medallions they are?

[gerard974]

hello
look this ,maybee you can find  DES DECORATIONS ETRANGERES

Best regards gerard

[jkk]

Merci Gerard, très gentil. These definitely resemble three of the medals on that page, enough to make me believe there is a connection. They are most similar to the Medal for Valor with the black/burgundy/old gold ribbon. However, I do not think these are the pendants from actual military medals, so it would make sense if they were some form of civic awards or commemoratives--except that it seems logical to conclude that the cannon and sabers and polearms render the design military in character.

[capnbirdseye]

There is a Pakistani Ebay seller who sells this kind of thing, here is a similar one

1324 AFGHANISTAN ZAHIR SHAH SADAQAT SILVER MILITARY ARMY SERVICE MEDAL L@@K!! |

[saro]

 The  central medallion of the 2nd medal shows "mir Amanullah" in a tughra style and the word at bottom "خدمت " means "serve" (for army service I suppose).

[jkk]

Thank you all. It seems these are the bottom (pendant) portion of minor Afghan Army medals from the first half of the 20th century. Since none have ribbons and only two have loops, I would presume they are of low value (probably less than US$10?).

[saro]

in addition...
the legend at top of the first medal refers to Nadir Shah and the date 1312 is a solar date (SH), so it isn't 1895 but 1934 AD.
" میر غازی محمد نادر شاه افغان " / "mir ghazi Muhammad Nadir Shah Afghan "

[eurocoin]

How do I see that it is a solar date?
Does the way I converted it give a lunar date? Or what is the conversion that I used to get to 1895?
Do you know why the date is divided?

[FosseWay]

How do I see that it is a solar date?
Does the way I converted it give a lunar date? Or what is the conversion that I used to get to 1895?
Do you know why the date is divided?

Solar years are the same length as AD years, so to get from solar hijra years to AD you just add 622.

The Muslim lunar year as used by most Muslim countries is 354 days long, i.e. 97% of the solar year. So you need to deduct 3% from the lunar hijra year before adding 622: 1312 * 0.97 = 1273; 1273 + 622 = 1895 AD.

There is no sure-fire way of knowing whether a date is solar or lunar except to know which countries used which calendar at which point (Afghanistan and Iran have both used the solar calendar extensively). With many coins, but perhaps less so with medallions, you can also guess by whether the converted date seems right or not for the coin. A coin from the Islamic Republic of Iran dated 1378 is unlikely to be dated in the lunar calendar because that would give an AD date of 1959, which is before the Islamic Revolution. But I agree in the case of these medallions, it is less obvious which dating system is used.

I'm not sure what you mean by the date being divided. 

[FosseWay]

It's always difficult to be sure from photos, but the "silver" medallion does look to me like it might actually be silver, or at least plated, rather than cupro-nickel.

[jkk]

That would be great if it turns out to be. All my coin collecting habits in effect bias me to assume a non-silver coin and hope to be pleasantly surprised. I will advise my friend to consider having that one tested.

[saro]

How do I see that it is a solar date?

It's only because this medal shows the name of the ruler at top that it is possible to think that 1312 is a solar datation.
If there is no context it's very difficult to know. 
(Muhammad Nadir Shah : 15/10/1929 - 8/11/1933 / AH 1347-1352 / SH 1307-1312)
Some last Barakzaï rulers have used alternatively AH dates or SH dates on their coins (Amanullah, Habibullah, Muhammad Nadir Shah & Muhammad Zahir Shah). a great source of confusion...

[eurocoin]

Thank you both for the interesting explanations  . For some time I have been looking into the Arabic dates, also learning the Arabic numbers. I already thought there was some sort of variation as although I applied the only formula I knew correctly sometimes the catalog would show a different date. It is good to know that that the formula I always used was the one of the lunar years and that there is a different forumula for countries using the solar years. It is disappointing that it is all so confusing, I wish all arab countries would just use the same calendar.

With 'divided date' I mean that there is space between the first 2 figures of the date and the last 2, like this: ۱۳  ۱۲
I have observed that on more medals and thought there might be some sort of reason for it.