Dirham - al-Mansur Madinat al-Salam

Al-Mansur founded Baghdad — Madinat al-Salam, City of Peace — in 762, making dirhams struck before that date in this series among the earliest coins to bear the city's name. The mint's establishment was itself a political act: relocating the Abbasid fiscal apparatus from the old Umayyad-adjacent centers toward a purpose-built imperial capital on the Tigris, designed by al-Mansur's own engineers in a perfect circle.

Album 213.1 distinguishes the early Madinat al-Salam issues from closely related types in the series. The reforms of the late 8th century would later standardize Abbasid silver output more rigidly, but these transitional pieces sit at the cusp of that process.