A rare Islamic gold solidus, an example of the first type of coin to bear a specific religious text known as the Shahada, led all bidding during Morton & Eden’s June 12 auction in London.
The circa AH 72 to 74 (A.D. 691 to 694) coin realized £168,000 ($214,738 U.S.) including the 20% buyer’s premium.
The coin was issued by the Umayyad ruler Abd al-Malik bin Marwan and measures 20 millimeters in diameter and weighs 4.27 grams.
The Arab-Byzantine style coin was estimated to sell for £150,000 to £200,000 ($190,365 to $253,820 U.S.).
What makes it special?
Its historical and religious importance lies in the fact that it is from the first known issue of gold coin to bear the words of the Shahada (“In the name of Allah there is no God but Allah. He is unique. Mohammed is the Messenger of Allah”) in order to spread the tenets of Islam as well as rejecting the Christian belief in the Trinity. The Shahada is inscribed in kufic script on the reverse.
The coin is generally thought to date to a period immediately before a dated series of solidi portraying the caliph himself which are dated from 75h to 77h and immediately after a series of dechristianized Arab-Byzantine solidi which retained Latin inscriptions but dispensed with all forms of Christian symbolism, most notably the crosses.
Ultimately the caliph established a purely epigraphic Islamic coinage in AH 77 (697 C.E.), and coins like this one were demonetized and supposed to be destroyed.
Only four other coins of this type have been sold at auction over the last 42 years.
The obverse of the coin depicts the Byzantine emperor Heraclius flanked by his sons Heraclius Constantine and Heraclonas, each crowned and holding an orb surmounted by a globe finial.
The reverse shows a vertical shaft surmounted by a globe and set on four steps flanked by the letters B and I; in the margin is the creed, BISMILLAH LA ILAHA ILLA ALLAH WAHDAHU MUHAMMAD RASUL ALLAH.
The coin is slightly clipped and exhibits faint traces of having been mounted but is “otherwise Good Very Fine,” the firm said.
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