Qanhari Dirham 'Damma' - Yazid ibn 'Umar

Yazid ibn 'Umar al-Fihri governed Sind during a period of acute administrative stress — the Umayyad caliphate was less than a decade from collapse, and frontier provinces like Sind were increasingly dependent on local monetary improvisation rather than central mint supply. The damma, a fractional silver unit derived from the drachm tradition inherited from Sasanian and post-conquest Arab-Sasanian coinage, persisted in Sind long after it had been abandoned elsewhere precisely because trade demands in the Indus region required small-denomination silver the central caliphal system never adequately provided.

At 0.38 g, this piece sits at the extreme low end of surviving damma weights, consistent with the poorly regulated local striking practices documented for Qandahar-affiliated issues of this period.