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| Issuer | Rashidun Caliphate |
|---|---|
| Year | 644-656 |
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| Shape | Round (irregular) |
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| Obverse description | Debased Sasanian-style royal bust facing right, rendered in the late Sasanian artistic tradition with heavily stylized regalia and coiffure. The portrait is executed in low relief on an irregularly flan, retaining the general conventions of Sasanian portraiture including a prominent crown or headdress. The surrounding field carries marginal decoration or a border of pellets or lines in keeping with late Sasanian and early Arab-Sasanian coinage typology. The design reflects the transitional period of early Islamic coinage, combining inherited Sasanian iconographic elements with nascent Islamic epigraphic additions. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Arabic |
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| Additional information |
The Rashidun copper issues attributed to 'Uthman's caliphate occupy one of the murkiest corners of early Islamic numismatics. Arab-Sasanian and Arab-Byzantine transitional coinage from this period was largely imitative — local mint operators in Iraq, Syria, and Persia continued striking on inherited flans with minimal modification, making firm attribution to a specific caliph's reign more an editorial decision than a documented fact.
'Uthman's administration was consumed by the first serious fractures within the Muslim community, culminating in his assassination in 656. Coinage reform was not a priority.