Baldwin & Sons
Auction 104 10 Mar 2022
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Arab-Byzantine (Umayyad), temp. Abd al-Malik (AH 65-86 / AD 685-705), gold imitative Solidus, uncertain North African mint (most likely Carthage), truncated legend, crowned and draped facing male busts (Heraclius and Heraclius Constantine), the left bearded, each crown topped by trefoil ornament. Rev. Truncated legend, 'T' (truncated cross) on two steps, 1.42g (A. 115var.; ICV 143var.; Bern. 8var.). Extremely Fine, reverse off centre.
Surviving examples of this type are very rarely seen and there are thought to be only around ten or so examples in existence. Only a couple are recorded to have sold in auction: firstly, a similar piece with two steps at Heritage Auctions that hammered at $24,000 in January 2019; secondly, an example with three steps, also at Heritage Auctions for $22,000 in January 2018.
With the death of Mohammed in AD 649 the Arabs were already ruling Egypt and pushed on west just seven years later to take the whole of the north African coast from the Christian Byzantines. By 705 this whole region became part of the Muslim Umayyad Empire, then ruled from Damascus by the Umayyad caliphs (661-770). Carthage was one of the last Christian strongholds to be taken, despite Byzantine efforts at reinforcement, which fell for the second and last time in AD 695 to the Umayyad general Hasan ibn al-Nu'man.
There was no formal plan to provide a new coinage for their newly acquired north African territories
– and initially the issue of coins appears to have been quite piecemeal. The immediate problem for the Islamic conqueror's was to provide a coinage for general commerce and taxation purposes and also to expand an Islamic identity into the monetary sphere. Also, at the same time, to produce something that was not overtly Christian, and therefore blasphemous in their eyes -and yet was acceptable to a largely Christian indigenous population. The Byzantines had issued gold solidi from Carthage for centuries and particularly a large mintage in the mid seventh century of small thick solidi featuring the facing busts of Heraclius and his son with a large cross on the reverse, which were at this time still in wide circulation in North Africa.
Their answer was to experiment with producing their own, similar looking version of this ubiquitous Heraclius solidus. However, the large cross on the reverse is mutilated to a large 'T', the crosses on the Emperors helmets are replaced with trefoils and the legends on both sides are Latinised versions of the Islamic declaration of faith – the Shahada. Although heavily truncated, they translate as 'There is no God but He alone who has no associate' and on the reverse 'God our Lord, the Eternal the All-knowing'.
These were not produced in large numbers, judging by their extreme rarity, and the experimentation of such a coin series is still only poorly understood – however, these imitations of Byzantine solidi, such as this coin, are considered to be the very first gold coins struck by the Muslims.
Surviving examples of this type are very rarely seen and there are thought to be only around ten or so examples in existence. Only a couple are recorded to have sold in auction: firstly, a similar piece with two steps at Heritage Auctions that hammered at $24,000 in January 2019; secondly, an example with three steps, also at Heritage Auctions for $22,000 in January 2018.
With the death of Mohammed in AD 649 the Arabs were already ruling Egypt and pushed on west just seven years later to take the whole of the north African coast from the Christian Byzantines. By 705 this whole region became part of the Muslim Umayyad Empire, then ruled from Damascus by the Umayyad caliphs (661-770). Carthage was one of the last Christian strongholds to be taken, despite Byzantine efforts at reinforcement, which fell for the second and last time in AD 695 to the Umayyad general Hasan ibn al-Nu'man.
There was no formal plan to provide a new coinage for their newly acquired north African territories
– and initially the issue of coins appears to have been quite piecemeal. The immediate problem for the Islamic conqueror's was to provide a coinage for general commerce and taxation purposes and also to expand an Islamic identity into the monetary sphere. Also, at the same time, to produce something that was not overtly Christian, and therefore blasphemous in their eyes -and yet was acceptable to a largely Christian indigenous population. The Byzantines had issued gold solidi from Carthage for centuries and particularly a large mintage in the mid seventh century of small thick solidi featuring the facing busts of Heraclius and his son with a large cross on the reverse, which were at this time still in wide circulation in North Africa.
Their answer was to experiment with producing their own, similar looking version of this ubiquitous Heraclius solidus. However, the large cross on the reverse is mutilated to a large 'T', the crosses on the Emperors helmets are replaced with trefoils and the legends on both sides are Latinised versions of the Islamic declaration of faith – the Shahada. Although heavily truncated, they translate as 'There is no God but He alone who has no associate' and on the reverse 'God our Lord, the Eternal the All-knowing'.
These were not produced in large numbers, judging by their extreme rarity, and the experimentation of such a coin series is still only poorly understood – however, these imitations of Byzantine solidi, such as this coin, are considered to be the very first gold coins struck by the Muslims.