Download PDF | Islamic Coins And Their Values, Volume 1 The Mediaeval Period , Volume 2 The Early Modern Period (Wilkes, Tim)
PREFACE
The subject of Islamic coins is one that, historically, has not been served well with reference books in the English language and even less so with regard to information on rarity and value.
The first such book was in the series of monumental volumes by Michael Mitchiner entitled Oriental Coins & Their Values, the first, published in 1977, covering The World of Islam. This work is now out of print. Nearly 20 years passed before Stephen Album published the first edition of his Checklist of Islamic Coins in 1993, followed by a second edition in 1998 and the most recent third edition in 2011. These works are still highly relevant for the collector but the values offered in Mitchiner’s work are now dated by nearly 40 years and Album’s checklist offers only a rarity guide and has no illustrations.
With the above in mind, sometime during 2012, I approached the author of this work, Tim Wilkes, with the idea of creating this book and, thankfully, he was receptive to the idea. Knowing what he knows now he may never have started the project but I am glad that he did as the result is, I hope, something that will establish itself as the standard handbook in the English language for Islamic coins for many years to come. It was created with the ‘Standard Catalogue’ format in mind, modelled on the highly successful Coins of England catalogue and the classic works by David Sear on Greek, Roman and Byzantine Coins & Their Values.
The original idea was to create a single-volume work covering all Islamic coinage but it soon became apparent that the work would take much longer than initially planned so it was decided to split the catalogue (at least for this first edition) into two parts, primarily in order to be able to publish the first part now so that users could get used to the format and the author can continue to work on the second part whilst receiving feedback on the first.
The task of obtaining high quality images for the catalogue was one which proved to be less painful than originally anticipated. Chris Howgego of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, kindly allowed us access to their vast collection of Islamic coins and we agreed with them to digitise their entire collection and they allowed us to pick and choose the images we required for this catalogue. We are extremely grateful to them for facilitating this. Many more images have been made available from the archives of various coin dealers and auctioneers and a complete list of image sources can be found in Appendix V at the end of the catalogue.
We hope you will find this book a useful and handy addition to the literature on the subject and that it will make this less-collected area of numismatics more appealing.
Philip Skingley
SPINK London, September 2015
INTRODUCTION
The world of Islamic coins has always been a somewhat neglected area of collecting. This is a shame, because Islamic coins offer much to interest the collector, including:
- The amount of historical information found on an Islamic coin is generally far greater than that found on a contemporary European coin; since most Islamic coins do not depict images, there is more room for text. A typical Islamic coin might bear the name of the ruler, his father, his overlord, the caliph, and the mint and date of issue. Most Islamic coins, from the earliest coinages onward, are dated, whereas in Europe it did not become common practice to place the date on coins until the 16th century.
- Many Islamic coins are aesthetically pleasing due to the artistry of the calligraphy and the styles and designs used.
Many Islamic coins of the period covered by this volume were struck in far greater quantities and are far more commonly available today than contemporary European coins; consequently it is possible to build a wide-ranging representative collection even on a limited budget.
Scope of this volume
This volume covers the period from the beginning of Islamic coinage in the Ist century AH / 7th century AD up to the 10th century AH / 16th century AD. The 10th century AH marks a natural point to conclude this volume, as it saw the end of many smaller dynasties and the rise of the three great dynasties which between them would go on to rule most of the Islamic world: the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals. I have not imposed an arbitrary cut-off date for this volume; I have elected to list complete dynasties rather than split them between two volumes. Obviously 900 years of coinage from an area stretching from Spain to Southeast Asia is an enormous subject which cannot be covered in great detail in a single volume, so some omission and simplification was inevitable. This book is intended to serve as an introductory guide; suggestions for further reading are given at the beginning of each section.
How to use this guide The prices given in this book are for coins in very fine (VF) condition, except for the Umayyad and Abbasid copper listings where the prices are for coins in fine (F) condition. The prices given are for coins where both the mint and date (when present) are visible; coins with illegible mints and/or dates will usually be worth less. The price given is for the most common mint and date combination within each type; rare mints and dates may be worth significantly more.
All the dates in this book are given in the Hijri (AH) calendar, signified by the letter h after the date.
Further reading - Plant, R., Arabic Coins and How to Read Them (reprint due to be published in late 2015) - Broome, M., A Handbook of Islamic Coins, London 1985 - Album, S., A Checklist of Islamic Coins, 3rd ed., Santa Rosa, 2011. This is an essential reference for any serious collector; it contains a wealth of information, both about the coins and their historical background. - Other works are cited at the beginning of each chapter and in the dynasty listings.
Acknowledgements
Thanks are due to Philip Skingley of Spink for persuading me of the need for a book of this kind, to Stephen Lloyd of Morton & Eden Ltd for proofreading the text and for many valuable suggestions, to Matt Curtis for doing more than his fair share of running our business while I have been working on this book, and finally to my wife Lucy for all her help and support.
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vol 1 - Press Here
vol 2- Press Here
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