News:

Sign up for the monthly zoom events by sending a PM with your email address to Hitesh

Main Menu

Civic copper of Khoy, sunface in six pointed star

Started by saro, July 17, 2019, 02:32:14 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

saro

27,5 mm /17,98g
This coin isn't recorded anywhere it seems... traces of a previous strike are visible,  with, at 3 o'clock, the word "sanah" and remains of a date hardly legible on a picture but which, with the coin in hand, likely gives "1237" and then this coin could have been struck at time of Fath 'Ali Qajar.
"All I know is that I know nothing" (Socrates)

saro

Quote from: saro on July 17, 2019, 02:32:14 PM
traces of a previous strike are visible,  with, at 3 o'clock, the word "sanah" and remains of a date hardly legible

I have been now able to identify this previous coin... it 's a coin of the same mint, listed by B.Alaedini p.103 and dated 1230 AH : a type with a colt running to left, looking back and a very similar style of obverse on which "sanah + date" is only added.
"Sanah" on obverse and remains of the ends of the fore legs of the colt at 8 o'clock, and an ornament at 11 o'clock are still visible on the reverse.
Two coins for the cost of only one... :)
"All I know is that I know nothing" (Socrates)

Figleaf

Fascinating. Top class detective work that you found both host and overstrike. What I find puzzling now is the dates. If I understand you correctly, you read 1237 on the overstrike and the host1230 on the host. However, my understanding is that the civic coins were overstruck every year. In that case, I would have expected 1231, rather than 1237.

Peter
An unidentified coin is a piece of metal. An identified coin is a piece of history.

saro

Thank you Peter for your relevant remark.
Civic coppers were not systematically re-struck every year, that depended of the rapacity of the governors, of the area and of the considered period. According to Steve Album speaking on civic coppers (from 'Sylloge of Islamic Coins in the Ashmolean'), "the old coins were recalled at intervals that could vary  from a few months  to a decade or more".
Under the Qajars who tried to reach some uniformity in copper coinage, with exceptions (...) it was somewhat better.
This host coin of Khoy could well have been in use for many years, between 1230 & 1237 or more ?
"All I know is that I know nothing" (Socrates)

saro

About the star of David present on this coin :

Armenians were numerous in Khuy area and the six pointed star called David's star is a very old Armenian symbol encountered on many monuments such as here on the tomb of the Grand Prince Hasan Jalal Vahtangian (1214-1261) and it isn't surprising to find it on a coin of Khuy; the Armenian wheel of eternity in center is here replaced,  by a more persian sunface.

armenia tombstone.jpg
"All I know is that I know nothing" (Socrates)