Fals - Ali bin al-Hasan type 2

Ali bin al-Hasan ruled Kilwa at a moment when the sultanate's control over the East African gold trade — routed through Sofala and northward to the Persian Gulf — was already beginning to fracture under succession disputes. These copper fals served purely local exchange; the real wealth moved in gold and cloth, not coin. The distinction matters because it means these pieces circulated hard among common transactions while gold left no numismatic trace at all.

Kilwa's copper coinage is among the earliest indigenous struck currency documented on sub-Saharan African soil, and Ali bin al-Hasan produced at least two distinct types within a reign lasting barely two years.