Help Identify World Coins 0

[cohncoin]

Can anyone help me identify these world coins? Any information on them is welcome.

I labeled obverses and reverses in the pictures for easier reference, but I don't know which side is which.

These are my best guesses:

1. Medieval/Crusader silver/billon denier (Castle on obverse. Not sure what’s on reverse)

2. Copper Islamic coin

3. Copper Indian/Mughal coin

4. Copper coin

5. Thick copper coin

Thanks,

Thomas

[JKK]

Weights (g, to .1) and diameters (mm), if you please. I have the resources to figure out probably three of them, but I'm not going on that safari without all the needed info.

[cohncoin]

Thanks JKK. I will post the weights and diameters later today, when I can.

[JKK]

4 hours ago, cohncoin said:

Thanks JKK. I will post the weights and diameters later today, when I can.

While I work on what I know, here's a place you can shovel through to find your Crusader--if in fact it is.

[cohncoin]

Here are the measurements:

1. Medieval/Crusader silver/billon denier - 0.9g, 20mm, very thin

2. Copper Islamic coin - 3.4g, 18mm x16mm

3. Copper Indian/Mughal coin - 10.1g, 19mm diameter, 4mm thick

4. Copper coin - 4.0g, 20mm

5. Thick copper coin - 8.3g, 17mm x 10mm, 5mm thick

[JKK]

Thanks, that's excellent. Please be patient. This takes significant time and digging, but is rewarding. If you want to work on 1 and 5 that'd be fine, since they are outside my expertise.

[Just Bob]

Try this page for your first coin.

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/index.php?r=moneta castelle&ct=coin

 

Here is one on Ebay, with a long write-up.

Link

Edited June 7, 2021 by Just Bob

[cohncoin]

Thanks Just Bob!

Wow! 

I checked out the links and browsed some similar listings on Numista. Based on the dotted circles surrounding the main devices on the obv and rev, I think my coin is a very similar issue of Alfonso X from 1269-1277.

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/index.php?r=alfonso+x+dinero+prieto&ct=coin&tb=y&tc=y&tn=y&tp=y&tt=y&cat=y&ru=&ca=3&no=&v=&d=&i=&a=&dg=&m=&f=&t=&w=&u=&g=&se=

[JKK]

On #2, my first thought was a billon jital. That search was easy because this coin has no a) Devanagari -script, b) circle/linear device, or c) bull/horseman. It was however a little large for a jital. In the end, none of the images in Tye with Arabic -script on both sides matched this one. So that was the initial aw*spoon*. Then to MWI, one of the bibles of Islamic numismatics. Our big tell on the coin is the la illah on one side, which is oddly on the bottom--that's the start of the Kalima, so I'd think it would normally be up top. It could be it's prefaced here with some other text.

Most early Islamic coinage is very thin with very fine -script, often in circles or a box. The drag with the medieval stuff is that the die is often much larger than the planchet, so it would actually take several well-chosen examples of any issue just to have a full idea of what all was on the die. It bites when the die whiffs on any date, that I can tell you. This is a heavier-gauge -script, and definitely not characteristic of the Persian nasta'aliq style; too blocky. Golden Horde is a possibility, just based on the style. I would doubt it as Mughal or later Afghan for stylistic reasons. That's the best I have so far for this one.

[JKK]

#3, I believe, is an AE 1/4 anna from Jodhpur circa 1937-38. Weight and diameter are about right; one can see clearly the name of George VI (reigning over Umaid Singh) and the Devanagari R. Looks a lot like this one. Don't bother looking in MWI--that was not much help at all. Might be KM#142 or #143; at least, that's the right neck of the Princely States woods to be checking. I don't think it's worth much special, a few bucks perhaps.

Edited June 8, 2021 by JKK

[cohncoin]

Thanks JKK!  

Thanks for your detailed and thoughtful insights on coin #2 and the identification of coin#3!

I purchased these coins and a few others a couple of years ago at a coin shop. I managed to identify the other coins (mostly common Roman coins and Russian wire money), but had no luck identifying these. I didn't think these would be particularly valuable, but It's fun to try to identify them and learn their history.  I appreciate your help and effort.

 

[JKK]

12 minutes ago, cohncoin said:

Thanks JKK!  

Thanks for your detailed and thoughtful insights on coin #2 and the identification of coin#3!

I purchased these coins and a few others a couple of years ago at a coin shop. I managed to identify the other coins (mostly common Roman coins and Russian wire money), but had no luck identifying these. I didn't think these would be particularly valuable, but It's fun to try to identify them and learn their history.  I appreciate your help and effort.

 

#4 is a bit problematic, but you have a key tell: the ankhlike emblem. Coupled with the |><| device on the other side, you could quite probably find that one. I suspect it is one of the many, many Afghan civic coppers, a denomination normally called the falus (fulus, I believe, being the plural; when it is fils, it is typically filsa, but that's in Levantine/Iraqi Arabic, which is not what they speak in Afghanistan). If you are interested, the term dates back to the follis (pl. folles) first minted under Diocletian's reforms, so it is almost as greatly ancient as dinar/dinero (for denarius, of course).

I would look carefully in the 1700-1850 realm of Afghan civic copper, for which to my knowledge no comprehensive catalog exists, so welcome to the sort of funhouse we deal with in this numismatic area. I'd start here. The minute you see that ankhlike symbol, you will have at least some sense you are on the right track. It might be a mint mark of some kind, or a privy mark, but one way or another it's not a frequent flier on Islamic world coinage. If nothing pans out in any of those cities, you might start looking at Mughal copper. I wish I could be more definitive.