Abbasid, al-Mahdi, gold dinar

[Joe Sermarini]

Islamic, Abbasid Caliphate, al-Mahdi, 775 - 785 A.D. (158 - 169 A.H.)

SH51934. Gold dinar, Album 214, VF, 161 AH (777 - 778 A.D.); obverse in center the first part of the Shahada "No deity but Allah alone, with no partner with him", "Muhammad is the messenger of Allah, He sent him with guidance and the right religion to be shown all over the religions" around; reverse the second part of shahada: "Muhammad is the messenger of Allah",, Bismillah (in the name of Allah), Dhuriba haza al-dinar (this dinar minted) sanat khams wa tis'ien wa mi'a (Year 161), all in Kufic script; $380.00

I am concerned about the authenticity of this coin.  The text seems very sloppy.  Is that normal for this type? 

Confirmation of the attribution would also be appreciated.

Thanks,

[rick2]

its difficult to say without having the coin in hand

if its gold and weighs correctly than it should be genuine.

the legend is not that unusual , you can compare it to this one

http://www.mcsearch.info/record.html?id=190431

even though it looks mangled and blurred.

the description is also wrong (according to my limited knowledge of cufic) in fact khams wa tisien wa miat is 195AH and not 161 (which should read as ihda wa sittin wa miat ).

one last thing gold dinar did not have the mintname written on the coin (as opposed to the silver dirhem ) so this could be a secondary or a smaller mint that minted it with mangled legends.

il try and decipher it later on if i get some time

[bakkar]

Dear Joe
the coin looks genuine to me, but I have to correct the
date. It is "Ihda wa A'rbai'n wa Mi'a" 141 AH

Best
Bakkar

[Joe Sermarini]

Thanks.