Numismatic and History Discussion Forums > Medieval, Islamic and Crusader Coins Discussion Forum

If you had to choose 10 Islamic coins...

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Federico M:
I know it's not so easy, and maybe it's not so meaningfull, but what coins would you suggest to represent Islamic coinage from its origin up to 1600? I don't mean extraordinary specimens, but common coins anyone could put in his collection, but with a specific importance (history/example of main denominations/etc.).

If I had to do the same thing for Roman coinage (I know a bit more) I would choose something like these representative coins (you may add some, but it's just to give an idea):
a Republican denarius with the Dioscuri or a quadriga;
an as of Nero or Vespasian (even a worn one you can buy for 20$);
a denarius of Trajan;
two/three denarii with the aging process of Caracalla;
an antoninianus of Probus or Aurelianus;
a FEL TEMP and a GLORIA EXERCITUS of the Constantinian dinasty;
a follis of Justin II.

Regards,
Federico

Istinpolin:
Hi

I find this a very interesting question. Well but the answer is very difficult. The Roman Empire was only one empire so it may be easier to choose. There have been more than over 100 Islamic empires ranging from China, over North Africa to over Balkan Europe including Hungary and Spain.


Well this is entirely based on my opinion:

1) An Umayyad coin which is minted to the standards of Byzantine empire. The reason being is that it is one of the first islamic coins ever.

2) A Sultani from Mehmed II who conquered Constantinople. This gold coin is pretty remarkable for its meaning.

3) An Umayyad coin minted in Spain with Al-Andalus as its mint. Also historically important. A very important conquest. If you compare the flags of the states in Spain you will all of them bein red and yellow representing the royal colours but only one flag is white and green representing the colours of Islam. This is due to Islamic occupation of Andalusia

4) An Ayyubid coin from Damascus minted under Sal al-din Yusuf, as he marched with 200000 men to conquer Jerusalem from there

5) Any coin from Sultan Suleyman I as under him the Ottoman Empire was at its largest size.

6) The Ottoman Akce from Galipoli, because the coin is quite rare, and also it was minted in 886AH, but centuries later the British Empire lost an important battle against the Ottoman Empire there.

This is where my list ends
Of course there are a lot more better coins of historical value but as I am mainly interested in the region of the middle east this would be MY list. There are of course other remarkable empires such as Mamluk, Abbasid, Great Mongols and many other Turkich or Persian coins.

It would be interesting to see some more opinions.

Best wishes,
Burak

LordBest:
I have No.4 on that list (which closely matches my list) and I used to have No.3 and 5 before I sold them to pay off some hefty debts.
Other coins I would like would be a coin minted by the Assassins at Alamut (i think) and coins minted in the Islamic occupation of Sicily.
                                                 LordBest. 8)

Robert_Brenchley:
No. 4's the only one I have as well. It's not a good specimen, but such a historical coin I had to have!

i-xan:
Istinpolin was right, it's very difficult to select the top 10 as there were so many islamic states. His favourites are mostly Ottoman, due to his interest to Ottoman coinage, mine would be Georgian coins with Arabic inscriptions, there're also amazing Persian and Indian islamic coins, etc.

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