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Lot 43
Umayyad Caliphate, Silver coinage. AR Dirham (26mm, 1.97 g, 11h). Anibar mint. Dated AH 81 (AD 700/01). VF.
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Live Auction
Islamic Auction 9
Live bidding begins Apr 24, 2025 at 2:00 PM BST
(20d 22h 24m left for internet bidding)
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Description
Umayyad Caliphate, Silver coinage. AR Dirham (26mm, 1.97 g, 11h). Anibar mint. Dated AH 81 (AD 700/01). Klat 139 (same dies); al-‘Ajlan p. 107, no. 5. Minor edge losses, some surface corrosion. VF. Extremely rare.
‘Anibar’ is one of the so-called Umayyad ‘Mystery Mints’. More than a century ago, Codrington proposed to read the mint-name ‘al-Bayan’. Walker followed Codrington, noting that ‘the Kufic form of the name does not quite agree with this reading, but for want of a better I accept it with a query.’ Al-‘Ush later proposed the reading ‘Anibar’, which Michael Bates pointed out ‘corresponds better to the name on the coin, but is not a place known to the medieval geographers (nor is any place mentioned with this ductus)’ (Bates, M., ‘Mystery Mints of the Umayyads’, ONS Newsletter 22, 1987). The latest note on this mint-name is to be found in Stephen Album’s indispensible Checklist of Islamic Coins, but merely observes that ‘the correct transcription of this unidentified mint remains obscure’. As AH 81 appears to be the only recorded date for the mint, this might suggest that ‘Anibar’ was one of the former Arab-Sasanian silver mints which was only active in the first years after ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwan’s coinage reforms, but further study will be required to identify which of these ‘Anibar’ might be.
The final winners of all CNG Islamic Auction 9 lots will be determined during the live sale that will be held on 24-25 April 2025.
Islamic Auction 9 – Session One – Lots 1–255 will be held Thursday afternoon, 24 April 2025 beginning at 2:00 PM GMT.
Winning bids are subject to a 22.5% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 25% for all others.
We recognize that our users may have various Internet Browsers and Operating Systems. We like our visitors to have the best possible experience when using our bidding platform. However, we do recognize that it is impossible to develop applications that work identically, efficiently and effectively on all web browsers. The CNG bidding platform supports the latest stable major version and stable previous version of Chrome and Firefox.
‘Anibar’ is one of the so-called Umayyad ‘Mystery Mints’. More than a century ago, Codrington proposed to read the mint-name ‘al-Bayan’. Walker followed Codrington, noting that ‘the Kufic form of the name does not quite agree with this reading, but for want of a better I accept it with a query.’ Al-‘Ush later proposed the reading ‘Anibar’, which Michael Bates pointed out ‘corresponds better to the name on the coin, but is not a place known to the medieval geographers (nor is any place mentioned with this ductus)’ (Bates, M., ‘Mystery Mints of the Umayyads’, ONS Newsletter 22, 1987). The latest note on this mint-name is to be found in Stephen Album’s indispensible Checklist of Islamic Coins, but merely observes that ‘the correct transcription of this unidentified mint remains obscure’. As AH 81 appears to be the only recorded date for the mint, this might suggest that ‘Anibar’ was one of the former Arab-Sasanian silver mints which was only active in the first years after ‘Abd al-Malik b. Marwan’s coinage reforms, but further study will be required to identify which of these ‘Anibar’ might be.
The final winners of all CNG Islamic Auction 9 lots will be determined during the live sale that will be held on 24-25 April 2025.
Islamic Auction 9 – Session One – Lots 1–255 will be held Thursday afternoon, 24 April 2025 beginning at 2:00 PM GMT.
Winning bids are subject to a 22.5% buyer's fee for bids placed on this website and 25% for all others.
We recognize that our users may have various Internet Browsers and Operating Systems. We like our visitors to have the best possible experience when using our bidding platform. However, we do recognize that it is impossible to develop applications that work identically, efficiently and effectively on all web browsers. The CNG bidding platform supports the latest stable major version and stable previous version of Chrome and Firefox.
