411, Lot: 601. Estimate $100. Sold for $75. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ISLAMIC, Commercial Weights & Tokens. Ayyubid Egypt. temp. al-Nasir I Salah al-Din Yusuf (Saladin). AH 564-589 / AD 1169-1193. Glass Jeton (26mm, 5.28 g). In the name of the ‘Abbasid caliph al-Mustadi(?). lillah and name of al-Mustadi in Arabic in three lines / Blank. Album 793.1. VF, milky green hue under a thick layer of earthen encrustation.

From the Norman Frank Collection.

Since the Abbasid caliph did not control Egypt, this Egyptian jeton must be assigned to Saladin, as al-Mustadi died before the end of Saladin's reign. Although Saladin did not issue coins in his own name during the first three years after his conquest of Egypt – they are in the name of the Zangid ruler Mahmud – he, not Mahmud, was in actual control of Egypt