Hey guys! I'm a longtime lurker but this is my first ID request. I bought this AE fals off of eBay recently and have been struggling to pinpoint its origin. The eBay listing called it a Abbasid AE fals Sayd b. Yahya Shash 149 AH. I did some research and I believe that it was a mistranslation of Yahya ibn Asad who ruled over al-Shash (Chach) as an Abbasid governor. His brothers and he started what would become the Samarian Empire. I have scrounged listings of Abbasid coins, Umayyad coins, Samarian coins, coins issued under Yahya ibn Asad, and still I'm dry. The coin weighs in at 2.23 g. It looks like there is still a decent amount of legend visible so I think that it is readable to the educated. The front obverse (1st pic) has the inscription "Muhammad Rasul Allah" within the dotted circle while the backside has the inscription "la ilaha illa Allah wahdahu". Both of these seem to be common Abbasid inscriptions but I have not been able to find it. Below the pictures are some similar looking coins that I have found as leads but have not been able to find anything past it. Any help is immensely appreciated. The reverse of this coin is quite similar to the reverse of mine.
Цитата: "Quant-Geek"Seems fake, very clumsy legends around the margins and even the kalima looks weird even though it is simple to re-create...
I appreciate the feedback. Do you think it is a contemporaneous imitation or a modern fake? The coin itself didn't seem to jump out to me as fake or artificially dated but I'm far from an expert.
To me, it looks like a modern fake. I also don't like the border of dots around the inner legend. Not completely circular which is atypical of these coins...
Think there is a misinterpretation to my statement. There are several coins that have a border made of dots as you indicate, but it is fairly circular line of dots. This coin, however, does not have a circular line of dots. It is kinked at the top which is very odd. Never seen that in any Abbasid or Umayyad coins other than ones that were forged clumsily...
Цитата: "Quant-Geek"Think there is a misinterpretation to my statement. There are several coins that have a border made of dots as you indicate, but it is fairly circular line of dots. This coin, however, does not have a circular line of dots. It is kinked at the top which is very odd. Never seen that in any Abbasid or Umayyad coins other than ones that were forged clumsily...
Hi! After hearing the authenticity concerns I contacted the eBay seller for further info. He sent me a link where I found some more details. I'll list everything at the bottom, but essentially the coin is a newer discovered variety of Abbasid AE Fals minted in AH 149 under Sa'id b. Yahya. There is no more information about this leader so he was likely a local leader of al-Shash. Also listed is governor al-Mahdi Muhammad before he became Caliph. With the new knowledge from these sites I am confident that the coin is authentic.
From there I found info leading to this article where James A. Farr and Vladimir N. Nastich detail the discovery of the Fals, "An Unrecorded 'Abbasid Fals of al-Shash, AH 149, in the name of al-Mahdi"
Starts on page 12 http://orientalnumismaticsociety.org/JONS/Files/ONS_168.pdf
