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Research Coins: Electronic Auction

 
310, Lot: 483. Estimate $100.
Sold for $130. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ISLAMIC, Umayyad Caliphate. Circa AD 696/7-750. Æ Fals (15mm, 2.86 g, 11h). Iliya (Jerusalem) mint. Five-branched candelabra with horizontal bar on top; vertical stem with two leaves at mid-height; “There is no god but Allah alone” around / “Muhammad is Allah’s messenger” in three lines; crescent below. D. Barag, “The Islamic Candlestick Coins of Jerusalem,” INJ 10, type 4; Walker 605; Album 163. Near VF, dark green patina, earthen deposits.


This series begins with a seven-branched candelabra, as the menorah, but appears to have been fairly quickly reduced to five branches. Barag (p. 47, note 40) raises the possibility of this symbolizing the Five Pillars of Islam. In an another possible appropriation of the traditional Jewish symbol, Album (p. 22) notes: “Turned upside-down, this design resembles the dome of a mosque, which may have been the engraver’s intention.”