ISLAMIC, Umayyad Caliphate. temp. Hisham ibn 'Abd al-Malik, AH 105-125 / AD 724-743. Dinar (Gold, 19.5 mm, 4.21 g, 7 h), AH 118 = 736 AD, unnamed mint, possibly Damascus. Arabic inscription around Kalima. Rev. Arabic inscription around Kalima. Album 136. ICV 212. Walker 238. Toned. Multiple cross graffiti in both sides, otherwise, very fine.
The graffiti engraved in both sides of this coin are really interesting as they are not letters but crosses. We can assume that at some point the owner of this coin was Cristian and it is really interesting that he carefully marked with crosses just the fields and not the inscriptions of the coin. Did the owner do that in order to "purify" the coin? And if he did that, did he only engrave the fields so that the value was still intact?