Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Larin - Abbas I
| Issuer | Safavid Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 1588-1629 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse face of the hairpin-form larin carries the Shi'a Islamic profession of faith in hammered Arabic script, densely arranged across the flattened wire surface. The Shahada inscription references God, the Prophet Muhammad, and the Imam Ali in accordance with Twelver Shi'a doctrine, a hallmark of Safavid coinage under Abbas I. The legends are struck in Naskh-style script and follow continuously around the bent form of the flan. As with the obverse, the irregular wire flan results in partial or compressed legend visibility depending on the strike. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | لا اله الا الله محمد رسول الله علي والي الله (Translation: There is no god but God, Muhammad is the Messenger of God, Ali is the Chosen of God.) |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
The larin was a distinctly Persian contribution to Indian Ocean trade currency — a silver wire bent double and stamped, circulating from the Persian Gulf to Ceylon and the Swahili coast. Abbas I inherited a monetary system in disarray after his predecessors' wars with the Ottomans had drained the treasury, and larins became one of the workhorses of his commercial expansion, particularly through the Gulf port of Bandar Abbas, which he founded and named after himself in 1615 following the expulsion of the Portuguese from Hormuz.
Portuguese traders had been so dependent on the larin that they minted imitations — a rare case of a European colonial power copying a local currency rather than displacing it.