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Islamic, Seljuqs Sultanate of Rum, Ghiyath al-Din Kay Khusraw II bin Kay Qubadh, 1237 - 1246 A.D.
The source and meaning of this sun and lion design is uncertain but there is a popular (although unlikely) explanation. The sultan was madly in love with his beautiful Georgian wife and wanted to put her portrait on his coins. His advisors disapproved, however, so he put his wife's horoscope on his coins instead - the Sun in Leo. The Ilkhan descendants of the Mongols copied this design on a copper fals nearly a hundred years later. After that it became a popular device with which to ornament the copper coins of eastern Anatolia, and particularly Iran where it eventually became the country’s national symbol.IS88011. Silver dirhem, Izmirlier 457, Mitchiner 982 var. (no crescent), Album 1218, VF, light golden toning, slightly off center on a tight flan, Siwas (Sivas, Turkey) mint, weight 2.867g, maximum diameter 22.1mm, die axis 270o, AH 638; obverse al-imam al-mustansir billah amir al-mu’minin (the Imam al-Mustansir, Commander of the Faithful), sun in radiance (the sun in Leo) above lion passant to right, crescent over star to left of sun, star below lion, pellet below raised left foreleg; reverse in central square: al-sultan / al-a'zam / kaykhusraw / ibn kayqubad (the Supreme Sultan Kaykhusraw ibn Kayqubad); above: (duriba) hadha'l-dirham; right: sittmi'a (this dirham was struck in Siwas, in the year 38, six hundred); below: fi sana arb‘in ; ex Specialty Stamp and Coin, Champagne, IL (2002); scarce variety; SOLD
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