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Dirham - Genghis Khan 'Chingiz Khan' Broad flan

Issuer Great Mongol Empire
Year 1206-1227
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Technique Hammered
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Obverse script Arabic
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Edge Plain
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Additional information

Genghis Khan's administration showed remarkably little interest in developing a standardized coinage for the empire during his lifetime — most commerce in the steppe economy ran on barter, livestock, and Chinese paper currency. The copper dirhams struck in his name were largely products of conquered Central Asian mints, particularly in Transoxiana, continuing the physical formats and even some design conventions of the Khwarazmian and earlier Islamic mints that Mongol forces had just destroyed.

The broad flan variety points almost certainly to a Mawarannahr mint, where larger flans had been conventional before the conquests.