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Follis / Fals - two standing figures type Arab-Byzantine
| Issuer | Umayyad Caliphate |
|---|---|
| Year | |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Copper |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Large capital letter M (the Byzantine numismatic denomination mark for 40 nummi) dominates the central field, surmounted by a cross above. The Greek mint name is inscribed in the field flanking the M, while the Arabic mint name appears in the lower exergue. The overall reverse layout closely follows the Late Byzantine follis convention, adapted with the addition of the Arabic inscription identifying the mint. |
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| Mint | Baalbek (Heliopolis) Mint |
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| Additional information |
Produced in the transitional decades after the Islamic conquests of Byzantine Syria and Palestine, these copper pieces were struck by Arab administrators who had seized Byzantine mints but lacked — or chose not to implement — an immediate replacement coinage. The standing figures design was lifted directly from late Byzantine prototypes, a pragmatic decision that kept commerce moving in territories where the population still trusted familiar iconography. Abd al-Malik's monetary reforms of 696–698 AD eventually swept away all figural imagery from Islamic coinage, making this entire class of transitional types a brief, bounded episode in mint history.