Monogram to identify, apparently not Byzantine

[Falderal]

I've gone through countless monograms from Greek onwards and Byzantine outwards and got nowhere. Tried Vandals, Visigoths, Roman, Greek, Bulgar, Carolingan, Merovingian, Franks, Normans, Herberts - you name it. No dice!

Years ago, I saw some similar elements on a coin of the Middle East, which led me to think it was a Middle Eastern Byzantine imitative, but found no such monogram among those available online.

The coin is a small, squarish bronze with text laid out in lines in the typical byzantine fashion on one side and this monogram on the other. I did my best to draw what can be seen, and my best to photograph same.

Thanks, all!

[Jim Roberts]

That's a Umayyad fals struck in Damascus around the year 130AH (748 AD), Bone 16.

The obverse (bottom picture) has the first part of the Shahada in three lines: la ilaha / illa Allah / wahdahu.  The reverse has the mint name, Dimashq, written across the center of the coin.  A small ornament described as a vertical branch is above it (at the right side of your photo), and the Arabic word ja'iz is below.

Jim

[Falderal]

I think you nailed it, Jim. Thank you! I had no idea about the orientation, and it certainly reflects the Byzantine style nicely, showing influence - if not outright plagarism!

A beautiful, meaningful coin, even if butchered and worthless. Would you say that the branch is from a cedar?

Thanks to everyone who helped in the background try to solve this one. I'd say that the circle in the middle really had me convinced it was a standard monogram, and not something far more obscure. I've rotated the photo to its proper orientation for future reference.

[rick2]

the circle in the middle is the M in Di ma s q , the mint name , the joined III next to it is the S

nice coin , is the first time i see such a layout on a fulus

[Falderal]

Thanks for the help, rick2 - this one had me going nuts, especially with the Roman-looking text on the reverse.

I can't find a single, solid reference to this one online, even with all the nice details provided by Jim Roberts and rick2. Does anyone have a photo or further info on this one?

Great coin - great mystery!

[rick2]

try here

www.zeno.ru

[Falderal]

Nothing, rick2 - I had no luck with several search strings, including "Umayyad+130AH", "Umayyad+Damascus", "Umayyad+Damashq", "I'm+getting+frustrated" and "I+give+up"...

[rick2]

dont search it !
browse it

http://www.zeno.ru/showgallery.php?cat=609

here s the link for the umayyad section, go into fulus and see what you find

there are lots and lots of different types of fulus so i would not be surprised if you cant find a match

[Falderal]

You're right, rick2 - though the search didn't find similar coins, a browse did.

I saw a familiar name during my quest, and found some close calls, I could find no match to the above description.