Watch List notes:

UMAYYAD, TEMP. 'ABD AL-MALIK B. MARWAN (65-86h). Dirham, HR (for Harat?) 79h. WEIGHT: 2.67g. REFERENCE: Klat 651, same obverse die. CONDITION: Faint pin-marks in fields, very fine or better and extremely rare. Discussing an example of this extremely rare issue now held in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Curiel conjectured that the mint-name might be 'Huz,' a putative singular form of 'Ahwaz,' in which case the mint would be located in one part of that city (so Bates, M.L., 'Mystery Mints of the Umayyads,' Oriental Numismatic Society Occasional Paper 22, December 1987). Recent opinion, however, favours the view that it is more likely meant to denote 'Harat'. It has been suggested that the die-engraver, who may very well have not understood Arabic and been familiar with Pahlawi, might have omitted the last two letters of the mint-name (perhaps being confused by the fi which follows it), but another possibility might be that HR was written intentionally as an Arabic version of the Pahlawi mint-signature HR/HRA. The existence of dirhams struck at Harat in 80h which do bear the Pahlawi abbreviation HRA in the obverse field, as well as the Arabic bi-Harat in the obverse margin, may lend support for this view.
(12000-15000 GBP)