Very Rare Bilingual Issue

CNG 100, Lot: 500. Estimate $7500. Sold for $17000. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ISLAMIC, Umayyad Caliphate. temp. Suleiman ibn 'Abd al-Malik. AH 96-99 / AD 715-717. AV Solidus – Dinar (13mm, 4.28 g, 6h). North African mint. Dated AH 98 (AD 716/7). SΛ∂ FRT IN AFRK AN XCVIII (S retrograde) around beginning of the shahada (“there is no God but Allah”) / INN∂NIN[...]W∂SIII (S retrograde) around continuation of the shahada (“Muhammad is the messenger of Allah”). AGC I 34Ca; cf. Walker, Arab-Byzantine, 185 and P. 50; Album 121M. Near EF. Very rare and interesting issue.

From the collection of Dr. Lawrence A. Adams. Ex “Caballero de las Yndias” Collection (Part III, Aureo & Calicó, 21 October 2009), lot 1399.

The Latin obverse legend bears the mint name “Africa”. The marginal reverse legend on this issue is always highly abbreviated. It can probably be expanded to in nomine Domini followed by the first part of the shahada translated into Latin: non est Deus nisi Deus Ipse.