UMAYYAD, TEMP. ‘ABD AL-MALIK B. MARWAN (65-86h) Dirham, without mint-name, 79h Weight: 2.69g References: Klat 1; cf Morton and Eden auction 63, 22 April 2013, lot 10, same reverse die Pin-marks in obverse border, very fine and extremely rare. Although reformed gold dinars had been struck at Damascus since 77h, and a few mints had begun to produce the related silver dirhams in 78h, it appears that these new silver coins were not struck at the Umayyad capital until 79h. The coin offered here, therefore, has the distinction of belonging to what is almost certainly the very first issue of experimental post-Reform silver dirhams from Damascus. Unlike mints in the former Sasanian lands, Damascus lacked a strong tradition of producing silver coins prior to the coming of Islam. At Damascus, therefore, the obvious prototype for the first post-Reform dirhams would have been the associated mintless dinars then being struck there, which probably explains why the very first of the new silver coins from Damascus - including the present coin - omit the mint-name, just as the gold dinars do. With more than forty other silver mints then active, however, the inconsistency of having mintless dirhams struck at Damascus alone must soon have become apparent, and the mint-name was quickly incorporated on all other silver struck there from 79h until the fall of the dynasty in 132h.

Estimate: GBP 15000 - 20000