Catalog
1/2 Bisti anonymous Lion right
| Issuer | Kartli, Kingdom of (1490-1762) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1679 |
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| Currency | Abazi (-1801) |
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| Obverse description | A lion passant to right occupies the central field, its tail curling upward over its back and terminating in a stylized floral or foliate motif. The animal is depicted in a robust, archaic style characteristic of Georgian hammered coinage of the period. Decorative pellets and a partial dotted or beaded border are visible along the inner periphery of the flan. |
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| Reverse description | The reverse bears a multi-line Persian inscription in naskh script arranged across the field, recording the mint name Tiflis (Tbilisi) and the AH date 1090, corresponding to 1679 CE. The legend reads: ضرب فليس تفليس ١٠٩٠, meaning 'Struck in Tbilisi, 1090'. The inscription is set within an irregular flan with no enclosing border, consistent with the rough hammered fabric of Georgian copper coinage of this era. |
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| Additional information |
Kartli in 1679 was navigating the brutal reality of Safavid suzerainty, with Shah Suleiman holding effective authority over the kingdom while Georgian kings minted copper locally to meet everyday commercial needs that Persian-controlled silver could not satisfy. The anonymous attribution — no royal name on the coin — likely reflects deliberate political caution, a minted ambiguity that avoided provoking either Safavid overlords or rival Georgian factions.
The bisti itself was a fractional unit rooted in Persian monetary convention, the word deriving from the Persian *bīst* (twenty), here halved into a denomination that handled the smallest market transactions in Tiflis and surrounding trade centers.