ISLAMIC, Umayyad Caliphate. Uncertain period (post-reform), AH 77-132 / AD 697-750. Fals (Bronze, 18 mm, 3.25 g, 8 h), citing Ubaydallah ibn Bishr, Barqa (Kyrenaika), without date. Album -. Zeno-150230. Of the highest rarity. Somewhat rough, otherwise, about very fine.


The rather mysterious mint of Barqa, the ancient Greek city of Barke in Kyrenaika, has only recently been studied by scholars, one of whom, F. Bauden, called its coinage 'a terra incognita' (F. Bauden: The Islamic Coinage of Cyrenaica (Barqa) from the Arab conquest up to the Advent of the Fatimids, in: Numismatica Patavina 13 (2016), p. 388).