Dirham 'Ornamental type' - anepigraphic Bulghar mint

Anepigraphic dirhams from the Bulghar mint occupy a peculiar corner of Golden Horde numismatics. The absence of any inscribed text — ruler name, date, Koranic formula — sets these apart from the overwhelmingly epigraphic output of the Jochid mints, and the precise political motivation behind the type remains unresolved. One plausible reading is emergency or supplementary striking during the succession turbulence following Möngke Temür's death in 1280, when administrative continuity at provincial mints was anything but guaranteed.

Bulghar on the Volga was among the earliest and most productive of the Horde's northern mints. The ornamental type is known in multiple die combinations catalogued under Sagdeeva's classification.