577 H. (1181/82) / Mardin
Two busts imitating portraits of Byzantine Emperors. Date.
Titles of the sovereign in five lines and legend on margin.
In the middle of the 12th century Islamic rulers especially in Northern Mesopotamia started to mint big copper coins with fascinating images, whose intellectual history still raises many unsolved questions.
Being regional currencies these coins have been depreciated on a regular basis. The invalidated coins could be exchanged with new coin types then. In doing so the financial administration deducted a fee. The images of the coins facilitated a quick exchange.
Already earlier huge amounts of byzantine copper coins had been imported in order to comply with the need for small money in this economically thriving region. Finally this lead to the own production of big sized copper coins, that delivered a lot of space for the die cutters‘ creative ambitions. The iconography stood in contrast to the silver dirhams with a standardized lettering, whose fineness had been drastically reduzed since decades. Beneath illustrations rooting in the own cultural background the admittance of motives of Greek, Roman and Byzantine origin is amazing, notably in the age of crusades. Actually people made use of symbols and patterns descending from the cultural traditions of the enemy.
Sold by the company Solidus Numismatik in online auction 2 in May 2014.