Public Numismatic Auction #8

A CAMPAIGN COIN TO PAY THE TROOPS ON THE FRONTIER OF THE UMAYYAD EMPIRE. al-Walid I, AH 86-96 (705-715). Dirham AH 92 (710-11), Marinan. Inscription centrale sur trois lignes, entourée d'une légende circulaire / Inscription centrale sur quatre lignes entourée d'une légende circulaire. 2,74g. A 128 ; Klat 580 ; Shams Eshrag -. Très rare. Très beau.
Klat - who was the first to record this coin - read this mint provisionally as Marinan or Mazinan, but on the die from which this coin was struck there are extra double points below the first and third letters and single points above the first and last letters. This makes the mint name difficult to interpret, because the reading of the “points” at the date this coin was struck is uncertain. It could possibly be read as Yamizyan, which would add a third reading to Klat’s original two. This mint name and date are unique in the Umayyad coinage and were never again recorded thereafter. A search for the mint’s possible location suggests that it may have been a “campaign” issue from a district outside the Arabic-speaking world. Perhaps it could be located in Byzantine Anatolia or in the Christian regions of Caucasia. It is likely, therefore, that a temporary mint was set up at army headquarters to provide dirhams, either to pay the troops or to purchase local supplies.