Catalog
| Issuer | Sharifate of Mecca |
|---|---|
| Year | 1815 |
| 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 | Round (irregular) |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Crudely hammered reverse bearing the Arabic numeral date 1230 (١٢٣۰), repeated twice in the field, corresponding to the AH year of issue. The numerals are rendered in an informal, somewhat stylized hand characteristic of provincial Hijazi coinage of the period. The flan is irregular in shape with uneven edges, and the strike is off-center, leaving portions of the legend weak or partially visible. No border or additional decorative motifs are present, the date inscription occupying the full available field. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | ١٢٣۰ ١٢٣۰ (Translation: 1230 1230) |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
The Sharifate of Mecca occupied an unusual political position in the early nineteenth century — nominally under Ottoman suzerainty but functionally autonomous, and briefly caught between Ottoman authority and the expanding Wahhabi movement out of Najd. By 1815, Sharif Yahya ibn Surur held Mecca following the Ottoman-Egyptian campaign that expelled the Wahhabis from the Hijaz, making this issue one of the few copper coinages struck under his name during a tenure defined more by outside military pressure than by administrative consolidation.