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 Pysa - Barghash Pattern
| Issuer | Sultanate of Zanzibar |
|---|---|
| Year | 1882 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Pysa (1⁄136 ZZY) |
| 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 | 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 | Arabic |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Central field depicts a balance scale suspended from a decorative cross-shaped bracket, emblematic of trade and justice. The Arabic date 1299 AH appears below the scales in Eastern Arabic numerals, centered within the design. The entire central motif is enclosed within a continuous decorative border of scrolling foliate and arabesque ornaments, matching the obverse treatment, with an outer plain rim. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Barghash bin Said commissioned this pattern as part of a broader push to establish a formal minted coinage for Zanzibar — a sultanate that had grown enormously wealthy on cloves and the East African slave trade. The Royal Mint in London struck several trial pieces in different compositions during 1882, testing nickel among them. The official circulation issue ultimately appeared in copper, making nickel survivors like this one purely experimental.
Barghash died in 1888, having never seen a fully realized Zanzibari coinage system come to fruition on his own terms.