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Khamsiya - al-Mahdi Abbas
| Issuer | Yemeni Zaidi Imamate |
|---|---|
| Year | 1753-1761 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Hammered |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Central field bearing a multi-line Arabic religious or dynastic legend in cursive script, crudely struck on an irregular flan typical of hammered Yemeni Zaidi coinage. The inscription, arranged in stacked horizontal lines, fills the field with characteristic calligraphic flourishes. The coin exhibits the rough, organic outline and surface texture consistent with hand-struck silver issues of the period. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Plain |
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| Additional information |
Al-Mahdi Abbas ibn al-Husayn ruled the Zaidi Imamate through a period of fragmenting Ottoman influence in Yemen, consolidating control over the highlands while coastal trade remained contested. The khamsiya — a denomination equal to one-fifth of a dirham — circulated in a monetary system that was deliberately insular, resistant to the foreign specie flooding Yemeni ports through the Red Sea coffee trade. Small silver fractions like this were the everyday currency of the interior market towns, not the coastal entrepôts.