Ottoman Imitation

[Rangnath]

13 mm
.3 grams

This looks a bit like a Nepali Dam in size and ornamentation. But I  am unable to recognize the script.  The coin is only stamped on one side.  Did I choose the wrong side to post?
I wish I could say that the metal was gold, but it appears to be bronze or brass. 
richie

[Oesho]

It's copied after an Ottoman gold coin. Such crude copies or imitations of Ottoman gold coins are often met with. Mostly these jewellers imitations are made after the Ottoman issues of Algeria. On this particular piece no sensible text is left anymore to tell after which issue it has been copied.

[Rangnath]

Thanks Oesho.  This light weight "coin's" identity had been bothering me. I'm grateful for the resolution!
richie

[Figleaf]

There is an old tradition, both in the Islamic and the Christian world, to present a bride with with money her husband cannot touch, in case of divorce, sudden disappearance or death of the husband or other calamities. This often took the form of decoration of clothes, since they were items that obviously did not belong to the husband. Gold coins would be pierced and attached to items of clothing.

Poor women's parents didn't have the means to provide their daughters with richly decorated clothes. In order not to look poor, these women would use fakes, made especially for the purpose of decorating clothes. Slowly, the reason for decorating clothes with coins was lost, but the tradition lived on.

I have seen real coins used as decoration on the traditional costumes of old Dutch port towns. In these outfits, clothes and jewelry are hard to distinguish.They were worked into earrings, bonnet clasps, brooches and coral necklaces (see pic)

Peter