8/10/2019 A Mamlk hoard of Hamh / [George C. Miles]

1/5

A

MAMLK

HOARD OF

HAMAH

SE E PLATE XLIX)

InJanuary1962 Mr. J. M. Eisenberg of New York was goodenough

to

permit

me to

examine

alot

of

305

Mamlksilvercoins

which he

had

acquired.1Allthese coins, ofwhich 297 were dirhems and eight ap-

parently half-dirhems, were specimens of asingle issue of the Bahri

Mamlk

sultanal-MansrSayf al-Din Qal n, struck at the Syrian

mint

o f

Hamh

in the

last year

of his

reign

689

H ./I29O

A.D.

As

this

particular issue is hitherto unpublished

2

and the lot appears to

con-

stitute a hoard, a short note on the subject would seem to be in

order.

All

the coins, both the dirhems and the fractions, appear to be

from

the same

pair

of dies. The dirhems rnge in

diameter

from 20 to

23

mm.,

the halves

from 17

to18 mm. The die positions are not fixed.

All the coins are very weakly struck, not worn, s the specimensil-

lustrated,

[68]g,

6 8 [ g ]

and

[689],

P LAT E

XLIX,

1-4,

show.

The

follow-

ingtranscriptions

of the

legends

are

reconstructedfrom

a

comparison

of several

specimens

O bv : Q \

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3

o8 A. N. S. MUSEUM

NOTES

Rev :

^-l

o

O

4-Lyl

Ornamentsbefore p

and

after

Themint

name

is

preserved

on147

specimens.

On no

single speci-

men

is the

complete date preserved,

but

there

are asufficient

number

with

either

thedigitor the

decade

or the

Century,

or two of the

three

figures,

preserved

to

leave

no

doubt whatever about

the

date,even

wherethedigitislacking, particularlysother details showthecoins

to be,

s remarked,

from identical dies.Fivespecimens are double-

struck,reverse

die on

obverse,

and

obverse

die on

reverse.

One

speci-

men is a brockage with retrograde traces of the reverse die on the

reverse

and the

obverse unaffected.

The eight specimens

which

I judge to be half dirhems because of

their reduced dianieters PLATEXLIX,5)rngeinweight from 1.08

grams

to

2.06 grams 1.08,

1.46,

1.75,1.93, 1.94, 1.97,2.06, 2.06).

The

frequencies of the

weights

of the

dirhems, scaled

at

intervals

of

.20

gr.,

are s

follows:

Weight

No of

Specimens

.

1.61-1.80

i ,

1.81-2.00 i

2.0I 2.2O

6

2.2I 2.4O 14

2.4I 2.6O

15

2.6I 2.8O

22

2.8I 3.0O 64

3.01 3.20 76

3 21 3 40

51

3.41 3.60

28

3.61 3.80 10

8/10/2019 A Mamlk hoard of Hamh / [George C. Miles]

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MAMLK HOARD

OFHAMH 3 9

Weight No

o/Specimens

3.81-4.00

5

4.01-4.20

2

4-35

4-77

The

peak therefore is at 3.01-3.20grams, somewhat above the

figure given by Balog

(op.cit.,

p. 41) for the

period (2.80-2.90

grams). The large number of specimens in the groups on either side

of

the

peak

64

from2.81-3.00grams,

and

51from3.21-3.40grams)

wouldsuggest

thatatthis

time

the

weight

of

individual dirhems

was

not

controlled nearly s accurately s it was in Umayyad and early

*Abbsid

days.

3

GEORGE C .

M ILES

3 C f.

G. C.M iles,

ByzantineMiliaresion

and

Arab

Dirhem: some

Notes

on

theirRelationship, ANSMN

IX,

1960,

p.

213.

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XLIX

GOLD FORGERIES

OF

TIGR NES

M M L U K

HO RD

OF H MH