I do not know what the first coin is. The 2nd is Greek, the 3rd and 4th Late
Roman and the last, as you noted in your other post, is
Islamic.
Unfortunately it is difficult at first to identify
Islamic coins. I have not found a site that makes it easy.
One interesting but labour intensive means is to surf the
zeno.ru and islamiccoins.ancients sites. They are the first two links on this
forum thread:
https://www.forumancientcoins.com/board/index.php?topic=13679.0 (Try the 2nd site first.)
The problem is that they are not identification sites. You have to know the dynasty and ruler to
search under or you have to take the time to wade through. But as your coin is likely Mamluk you can start there.
It helps to know where your coins came from. Though your dealer did not say, you can tell by looking at mix in the lots. That mix (
Seleucid Greek,
Ptolemaic Greek,
Nabataean,
Judaean, Greek Imperial/Roman Provincial/Cities,
Roman Imperial,
Byzantine,
Islamic) is known as "
Holy Land" and
comes from
Israel and maybe Jordan,
Syria and Lebanon.
Then learning about the
history of the
area can give you clues about what you should find.
In terms of
Islamic from this
area the most common that you will find are:
- Umayyad - The earliest
Islamic coins. These are usually small but very thick with highly raised lettering that is rather crude and extends off the flans. There is sometimes a small symbol in the middle.
- Abbasid - Most of their coinage was made up of very thin but large and perfectly round silver dinars with equisite calligraphy. These do not show up in lots. however their copper fullus are sometimes found. They are larger then the Ummayad and not as thick but
still thicker than
Roman. They are roughly circular but a
bit blobby and have 2-4 lines of neat but plain
Islamic calligraphy.
-
Ayyubid - (also Zangids and Seljuks) - This copper coinage is larger, quite thin and usually quite round. They calligraphy is neat and can be quite ornate and can run in several directins on the same coin. It often has a square or
star or
circle as
part of the design. This period includes coins of Saladin (an-Nasir Yusuf Salah al-Din).
- Mamluk - They ruled from Cairo but ruled the "
Holy Land" in the late 13th to 15th centuries. Though some of their coinage is round much is oval or squarish. It is of moderate thickness. They often have the four little points at the corners like yours does as the blanks were stamped out of sheet metal. The calligraphy is not as ornate as
Ayyubid and is a lot more vertical - in the extreme it just looks like a row of IIIIIII. As a clue to identification try the longest lived Sultans. It was a dynasty of slave-soldier Sultans and they killed each other frequently. Try the Bahris - Baybars the 1st, an-Nasir Mohammad, and Ashraf Shaban (whose coinage has lots of little
symbols and designs incorporated), and the Burjis - Zahir Barquq (ditto) and Ashraf Barsbay.
In some cases the only possible identification will be the Dynasty but in others, like your #5, a full
attribution should be possible.
Shawn
