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Irregular AE - Demetrius I Type 4
| Issuer | Kingdom of Georgia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1136-1152 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | 2.7 mm |
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| Obverse description | Central field occupied by the Asomtavruli letter Ⴃ (initial of King Demetre), surrounded by elaborate ornamental motifs arranged to form a large eight-pointed star. An Arabic legend appears below the central letter and likely also above it, partially integrated within the star design. The overall composition reflects the hybrid Georgiano-Islamic artistic tradition characteristic of the Bagrationi court coinage of the twelfth century. |
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| Reverse description | Five lines intersect across the field, forming a five-pointed star at the center of the coin. Arabic legends occupy the spaces between the star's points, while additional Arabic inscriptions appear in the outer segments, though these peripheral legends are almost invariably off the planchet due to the irregular flan size. The reverse design follows the conventions of contemporary Islamic coinage adapted for Georgian royal use during the reign of Demetrius I. |
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| Additional information |
Demetrius I came to the Georgian throne in 1125 following the death of David the Builder, inheriting both an expanded kingdom and a complex monetary system that had absorbed Byzantine, Seljuk, and local traditions simultaneously. The irregular copper issues attributed to his reign are poorly understood precisely because Georgia at this period had no fixed mint infrastructure in the modern sense — production was episodic, tied to administrative need rather than a centralized monetary policy.
Type 4 within this series is distinguished primarily by die characteristics rather than design consistency, and attribution remains contested among specialists working from Georgian and Armenian chronicle sources.