Sale: CNG 70, Lot: 1218. Estimate $200.  Closing Date: Wednesday, 21 September 2005.  Sold For $320. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ISLAMIC DYNASTIES, Ottomans. Muhammad IV. 1648-1687. AR Timmin (2.72 g, 6h). Dated 1669/70. Over struck on a douzième of Louis XIV. Laureate, draped, and cuirassed bust of Louis XIV right; c/m: naqd sahih (current or legal tender)/[10]80 / Crowned royal coat-of-arms. For coin type: Duplessy 1464; Ciani1836; for c/m: Wilski Tim 01. Near VF, lunate manufacturing edge clip. Very rare countermark. ($200)

The French douzième écu or luigini was a popular trade coin in the seventeenth century Levant, where they were known as timmin, or 1/8 of a riyal (Arabic tumn). Naturally, their popularity spawned a rash of imitations, and by 1670 the Turkish marketplace was threatened by a flood of low-value fakes. The importation of further timmin was forbidden, the low quality fakes were withdrawn, and the remaining genuine pieces were countermarked to authorize their continued circulation.