282, Lot: 432. Estimate $100. Sold for $180. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

Post-Reform coinage. Anonymous. Circa 740s. Æ Fals (13mm, 2.69 g, 7h). Iliya (Jerusalem) mint. Five-branched candelabra with horizontal bar on top; vertical stem with two leaves at mid-height; “There is no god but Allah alone” around / “Muhammad is Allah’s messenger” in three lines; crescent below. D. Barag, “The Islamic Candlestick Coins of Jerusalem,” INJ 10, type 4; Walker 605; SNAT IVa 29; Album 163.2. VF, dark brown patina. Rare.

From the J. S. Wagner Collection.

This series begins with a seven-branched candelabra, as the menorah, but appears to have been fairly quickly reduced to five branches. Barag (p. 47, note 40) raises the possibility of this symbolizing the Five Pillars of Islam. In an another possible appropriation of the traditional Jewish symbol, Album (p. 44 [3rd edition]) notes: “Turned upside-down, this design resembles the dome of a mosque, which may have been the engraver’s intention.”