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Lot 225

An Abbasid half-dinar glass weight in the name of Muhammad b. Said (Finance Director of Egypt AH 152-157/AD 769-774), Salama (Executive), and Severus (Artisan)
Egypt

23 April 2013, 10:30 BST
London, New Bond Street

£1,500 - £2,000

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An Abbasid half-dinar glass weight in the name of Muhammad b. Said (Finance Director of Egypt AH 152-157/AD 769-774), Salama (Executive), and Severus (Artisan)
Egypt

of pale green colour
21mm. diam., 2.13 grams

Footnotes

Provenance: Frank Linville Collection, Malter Sale XXXIX, 2 April 1989, 131, ill.

Three line inscription in a circle:
bi-sm Allah/ amara al-Amir/ Muhammad ibin Sa'id/ mithqal nisf dinar
"In the name of God/ Ordered the Amir/ Muhammad b. Sa'id/ a weight of a half-dinar"

Obverse, linear circular inscription:
bi-sm Allah 'ala yaday Salama
"In the name of God. At the hands of Salama."

Reverse, two line inscription:
tab'at/Sawiris
"Stamping/ of Severus"

Two other half-dinar obverses of Muhammad b. Sa'id have been illustrated (see Morton 1985, 258), both are without reverse. The present example has two reverses, one of Salama and Severus and one of Sa'id b. al-Musayyib and Severus. This reverse combining Salama and Severus is well documented (see the 10 examples published by Balog, 1976, 480). The short name on the reverse is interpreted as the Coptic name Severus.

The existence of numerous half and third-dinar glass weights at this period pose a real problem. The gold coin fractions (half and third-dinar) were minted only between 708-725AD but the fractions weights were also produced very much later. A.H. Morton thought that these numerous late glass dinar-fractions, as the present piece, did seem "unnecessary".

Additional information