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Coin Of the Month - April 2003GREG'S COIN OF THE MONTH - an Artuqid bronze 
 Note: Click on an image to see a larger version of the coin I found this one at the Willamette Coin Club's show at the Double Tree Hotel in Portland, February 15-16. Sometimes when you're scanning the thousands of coins in dealers' cases at a show, one stands out, and you think, "WOW, what a coin!". This is one of those. The Artuqids were one of a couple of 'Turkoman' tribes that ruled areas of southern central Asia and the near east in the 12th and 13th centuries. Among the Islamic coinages of the Middle Ages, their's was the most unusual because many of their coin types had images, while most Muslim coins have only inscriptions, because Muslims generally very literally interpreted the Biblical commandment against making 'graven images'. There are differing opinions about why the Turkoman rulers used images on their coins, one being that they wanted to use a style of coins more familiar to the Crusaders, with whom they traded, as well as fought. However, the Turkoman Atabegs copied, adapted, and combined designs from ancient Greek and Roman coins that would not have been familiar to traders of the time. Even the designs copied from Byzantine coins were ones that were centuries old at the time. Some of these coins used entirely new designs not related to any Greek, Roman or Byzantine coins, and this particular type is an outstanding example of a type unlike any ever minted anywhere else in the world. The description of the image is, "helmeted Turk seated cross-legged, wearing chain mail armor, holding a sword in his left hand and a severed head in his right hand". (The strategy of 'decapitating' enemy leadership is not a new concept in that part of the world!) The image seems to say, "I've got a big sword, and happiness is totally vanquishing my enemies!" Throughout the Middle Ages, the dirhem denomination was usually a broad thin silver coin with a silver content comparable to a dime. Being required to accept a large, thick, heavy bronze coin in place of a silver coin was probably not welcome to the merchants of the time, but given the image on the coin, I expect they were careful not to complain too loudly! The city of Maridin is in southeastern Turkey about a hundred miles from the border of modern Iraq. |