Drachm - Mu`awiya first Umayyad caliph

Mu'awiya ibn Abi Sufyan became caliph in 661 following the First Fitna, the civil war that fractured early Islam after the assassination of 'Uthman. Rather than immediately overhaul the monetary system he inherited, he retained Sasanian-derived drachm types — the caliphate's treasury needed functional coinage fast, and striking familiar forms reduced resistance in the former Persian provinces where these coins circulated. Album 14 covers this transitional phase, where Arab-Sasanian issues bear governor names or the caliph's name in Pahlavi alongside increasingly abbreviated Zoroastrian fire-altar imagery.

The 663 date places this coin among the earliest issues of Mu'awiya's reign, struck while he was still consolidating control over Iraq and the eastern territories.