The anepigraphic "fish scales" dirhams of the Bulghar mint occupy an odd corner of Golden Horde numismatics — no ruler name, no date, no mint formula in the conventional sense, yet clearly official production from one of the Horde's most active commercial centers on the Volga. The type's dating to roughly 1280–1310 places it across several reigns, which may explain the deliberate suppression of royal titulature; attribution to any single khan remains unresolved.
Bulghar had been a major Islamic trading hub long before the Mongols absorbed it, and the mint continued striking through the disruptions of succession disputes that plagued the Horde in the late 13th century.
The anepigraphic "fish scales" dirhams of the Bulghar mint occupy an odd corner of Golden Horde numismatics — no ruler name, no date, no mint formula in the conventional sense, yet clearly official production from one of the Horde's most active commercial centers on the Volga. The type's dating to roughly 1280–1310 places it across several reigns, which may explain the deliberate suppression of royal titulature; attribution to any single khan remains unresolved.
Bulghar had been a major Islamic trading hub long before the Mongols absorbed it, and the mint continued striking through the disruptions of succession disputes that plagued the Horde in the late 13th century.