Watch List notes:

Fatimid, al-Mustansir (427-487h), dinar, Misr 440h, 2.38g (Nicol 2120 = Qatar 2632), probably removed from a ring mount, better than very fine and extremely rare, apparently only the second recorded example of this type. Three different varieties of dinar were struck at Misr in the year 440h. The most commonly encountered variety is similar to the present coin but carries a fifth line of inscription ('Abd Allah wa walihi) beneath Ma'add in the obverse field (Nicol type I1). This arrangement of legends is found on all known Misr dinars struck in 439h and was also adopted on coins struck during the first part of 440h. Later in that year this was replaced by a new type on which the legends on both sides were arranged in three concentric circles, and this which was used consistently thereafter on Fatimid dinars of Misr from 440h until the 460s. The legends on the present coin, rather than following those used on dinars struck at Misr in 439h, revert to an earlier type used in 438h and earlier. The reappearance of this type in 440h, given that it was not employed in the previous year, is difficult to explain, but as the variation is found on the side which also features the date, and since the only other example (in Qatar) is struck from different dies, is clearly deliberate. Chronologically, rather than placing it at the very start of 440h as Nicol's sequence implies, it is perhaps easier to regard this was a short-lived experiment which took place mid-way through 440h, directly before the type with three concentric circles was finally adopted.
(1000-1500 GBP)