Fals - Anonymous Busra

Busra — ancient Bostra, the old Nabataean capital and Roman provincial hub in southern Syria — remained a significant administrative node under Umayyad rule, and its copper fals coinage was never centrally standardized the way the gold dinar and silver dirham were after Abd al-Malik's monetary reforms of 696–697. The anonymous attribution reflects exactly that: no caliph claimed these small-denomination pieces, which circulated in local markets well outside the prestige economy of the reformed bimetallic system.

The absence of a named authority on provincial copper was deliberate policy, not an oversight. Weight variation across anonymous fals from Syrian mints is extreme, and 2.47g sits toward the lighter end of attested examples from Busra.