Watch List notes:

FATIMID, AL-MUSTANSIR (427-487h). Dinar, al-Mahdiya 460h, month of Ramadan. OBVERSE: In margin: ...duriba hadha al-dinar bi'l-Mahdiya shahr Ramadan min sanat.... WEIGHT: 4.00g. REFERENCES: Nicol 2239 = Qatar 2679, same dies. CONDITION: Struck from rusty dies, very fine to good very fine and extremely rare. In the late 450s the mint of al-Mahdiya began to add the month of issue to the standard mint/date formula. This innovation seems to have taken place midway through the year 457h, for which dinars are known with and without the addition of a month name, and lasted until at least 463h. Nicol records eight dinars of this type, all of which are very rare today. It seems unlikely that dies would have been prepared for all twelve months for a given year, and indeed only a single month is known for most dates, but Nicol records dinars from two different months for the year 460h: Safar, and Ramadan (as here), listing only a single specimen of each. No explanation seems to have been advanced as to why month-names should have been added at al-Mahdiya, but not at other more prolific mints such as Misr.
(2000-3000 GBP)