Watch List notes:

ARAB-SASANIAN, SALM B. ZIYAD, Drachm, MRW (Marw) 65h. OBVERSE: In second and third quadrants of margin: bismillah Allah – akbar. REVERSE: In first quadrant of border: ombiro. WEIGHT: 3.31g. REFERENCES: Gaube p.29, 2.2.3.4.19; cf Walker p.81, 138 for a coin with similar legends (dated 68h). CONDITION: Mount removed from edge, good fine and extremely rare. NOTE: This appears to be the earliest known Islamic coin to bear the famous slogan Allah Akbar. Discussing the specimen dated 68h published by Walker, Album notes that the word ombiro on the reverse 'must assuredly be the Bactrian form of the city name Anbir' (SICA 1, p.23). His explanation for this curious situation whereby the coin apparently has two mint-names - the Pahlawi MRW (Marw) and the Bactrian ombiro (Anbir) - is that the Pahlawi legend denotes where the coin itself was struck (Marw), while the Bactrian inscription shows that it was issued under the auspices of the Ephthalites, whose political capital was at Anbir. Further support for this coin having been struck by or for the Ephthalites comes from the presence of a fourth circle on the reverse, outside the four stars-and-crescents. As Album points out, this feature is not otherwise found on regular Arab-Sasanian drachms until the early 70s, but appears on the plentiful Ephthalite imitations of Anahita-type drachms of Khusraw II, struck well before the present coin.

Estimate: £1,200-1500