Watch List notes:

Umayyad, temp. 'Abd al-Malik b. Marwan (65-86h), dirham, Arminiya 78h, obv., with Muhammad rasul Allah...in margin, rev., with mint/date formula in margin, wa at beginning of third line in field, 2.77g (Klat 45 = Naqshabandi and Bakri 3), toned, good very fine and excessively rare. All Umayyad post-Reform silver from the year 78h is of the highest rarity, to the extent that Walker, writing in 1956, was unaware that any even existed. Since then, barely a dozen examples of this date have come to light, but these few coins have transformed our understanding of how the reform of the silver coinage came about. Unaware that dirhams dated 78h existed, Walker believed that the earliest post-Reform silver coin was a mintless dirham dated 79h (Walker p.104, Kh.4; an example of this issue was sold in these rooms, 22 April 2013, lot 10), which he attributed – almost certainly correctly – to the mint of Damascus. He considered that this was an experimental piece, issued without mint-name to conform to the pattern set by the gold dinar coinage, but that when a number of other mints began striking the new dirhams in 79h it was decided to add the mint-name to Damascus dirhams also. But the existence of dirhams dated 78h from five different mints – Adharbayjan, Arminiya (as here), Jayy, Shaqq al-Taymara and al-Kufa, all of which were active in the year before production began at Damascus, demonstrates that the reformed dirham coinage was not something begun in the capital and gradually adopted elsewhere, as Walker's explanation implied. Instead, it seems that the decision to begin issuing the new dirhams began in the year 78h, with dozens of mints involved, but for practical reasons not all were able to begin production immediately. Those which were already striking silver coins might be expected to have begun issuing the new coins sooner, while others, including those which were geographically more remote, or where a mint had been reopened or a new facility established, would surely have taken longer. The calligraphy on this piece has clear similarities with that found on Armenian drachms issued circa 75-78h under Muhammad b. Marwan, the caliph's brother and governor of the province, and the presence of local workers who were able to produce new dies on site may have been another reason why Armenia was able to begin striking post-Reform dirhams more quickly than other locations. This might also explain why the legends are placed differently on this specimen – as an exceptionally early issue it was struck before the precise format of the design had evolved. It may be noted that the placing of the mint/date formula on the reverse, as on this piece, rather than on the obverse where later Umayyad dirhams carry it, is exactly the same arrangement as adopted on the post-Reform gold coinage. So Armenia, which was producing its own distinctive regional coinage at the time of the reforms, may well have been in a position to strike dirhams before Damascus, whose own silver coinage during the 70s is restricted to a few experimental types which never seem to have been struck in quantity. (£20000-30000)