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!
Abbasi - Mahmud Hotaki Type A, Esfāhān mint
| Issuer | Hotak dynasty |
|---|---|
| Year | 1723-1725 |
| 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 |
| 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 | The obverse displays a four-line Persian poetic legend in elegant Nasta'liq script, arranged in horizontal registers across the field, separated by ruled lines. The inscription reads as a royal panegyric verse proclaiming Shah Mahmud as a world-conquering sovereign of noble Sayyid lineage, whose coin rises like the disc of the sun from the eastern horizon of Iran. The mint name 'Zarb Esfahan' (struck at Isfahan) appears in the lower register, accompanied by the AH date 1135. Small floral ornaments are interspersed between the registers, a decorative convention typical of Safavid-derived coinage continued under the Hotak rulers. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| 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 |
Mahmud Hotaki seized Isfahan in 1722 after his Afghan forces besieged the Safavid capital for seven months, forcing Shah Sultan Husayn to abdicate in person and hand over the imperial regalia. The right to strike coin was among the first assertions of legitimacy Mahmud exercised — Isfahan's mint had been one of the most productive in the Safavid realm, and keeping it operational signaled control over the economic machinery of a conquered empire.
Mahmud's reign lasted barely three years before his cousin Ashraf had him killed in 1725. Issues from this mint window are correspondingly short-lived in the numismatic record.