ISLAMIC, Umayyad Caliphate. temp. 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, AH 65-86 / AD 685-705. Fals (Bronze, 21 mm, 2.94 g, 10 h), 'Standing Caliph' type, uncertain mint, probably in Jund Qinnasrin, AH 74-80 / AD 693/4-699/700. Caliph standing facing, bearded, placing his right hand on the pommel of his sword; around, blundered 'J li' abd Allah' abd al-Malik Amir al-Mu'minin' ('for the servant of God, Abd al-Malik, Commander of the Faithful' in Kufic).
Rev. Transformed cross standing on three steps; in field to left, meaningless mint name; in field to right, lower part of wāf ('full weight' in Kufic); around, blundered part of the first Kalima. DOCAB -. Goodwin, Standing Caliph Coinage -. SICA I -. Unpublished and of great interest. Very fine.
From a collection of Arab-Byzantine and Crusader coins, formed in the 1990s.
T. Goodwin noted, in correspondence with this cataloguer, that the die engraver apparently ran out of space when writing the last word of the marginal obverse legend ('al-Mu'minin') and therefore chose to write the last four letters in an unusual position upward just to the left of the caliph. The piece is probably a contemporary imitation from Jund Qinnasrin. We kindly thank T. Goodwin for his valuable contributions to the discussion of this interesting issue.
