Catalog
Dirham - Möngke Tiflis mint
| Issuer | Great Mongol Empire |
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| Year | 1251-1259 |
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| Currency | Dinar (1206-1368) |
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| Obverse description | Central field occupied by a bold three-line Arabic Shahada legend in Naskh script, reading horizontally across the flan. The tamgha (dynastic seal) of Möngke Khan is prominently placed within the legend, serving as a divisional element between the lines. The entire design is framed by a dotted inner border, with a plain outer rim following the irregular edge of the hammered flan. The lettering is deeply struck and bold, characteristic of Mongol-period Georgian mint production. |
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| Obverse lettering | لا اله الا الله وحده لا شريك له (Translation: There is no God but Allah alone. There are no others with Him.) |
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| Additional information |
Möngke's reign as Great Khan marked the last period of genuine unified Mongol imperial authority before the succession wars of 1260 fractured the empire permanently. Coins struck at Tiflis during these years reflect the empire's administrative absorption of the Caucasus, a region taken from Georgia in the 1230s and progressively integrated into Mongol fiscal infrastructure. The Tiflis mint was reactivated under Mongol control specifically to service a region with deep commercial ties to both the Levantine trade routes and the Iranian plateau.
Bennett's Tifl#263 is among the more precisely attributable types from this mint, a mint whose output is often difficult to sequence given the overlapping authorities that claimed it across the 13th century.