Falus Lion and Sword

Herat in the 12th century sat at the intersection of Ghaznavid collapse and Ghurid expansion — a city that changed hands violently and repeatedly, with local copper coinage often filling the vacuum left when imperial minting authority dissolved or became logistically unreachable. Falus of this type functioned in the bazaar economy when silver dirhams were scarce or hoarded, and their attribution is notoriously difficult; Zeno references for these pieces frequently accumulate multiple catalog numbers as specimens surface with subtle die differences that resist clean classification.