Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1/2 Mithqal - Tahmasp I Herat
| Issuer | Safavid Dynasty |
|---|---|
| Year | 1570 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Variable alignment ↺ |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | The entire field is occupied by a multi-line Arabic legend in bold thuluth script, densely arranged in an interlocking cartouche-like composition characteristic of Safavid hammered coinage. The inscription proclaims the royal title and devotional epithet of Shah Tahmasp I as servant of Ali ibn Abi Talib, followed by the mint name Herat and the AH date 978. The raised lettering fills the flan to its irregular edges, with no border or decorative devices, consistent with the austere epigraphy of mid-sixteenth-century Safavid gold issues. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse bears the Shi'a Kalima rendered in bold thuluth script, distributed across the field in three horizontal registers filling the entire flan. The inscription opens with the Shahada declaring the oneness of God and the prophethood of Muhammad, followed by the distinctively Twelver Shi'a affirmation of Ali as the Wali of God. The raised calligraphic strokes are deeply struck and characteristically intertwined, with no border ornament, reflecting the standard reverse type adopted throughout the Safavid monetary system under Tahmasp I. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Plain |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information | Log in to see details |