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Research Coins: Electronic Auction

 

Rare Angel Dirhem

168, Lot: 303. Estimate $150.
Sold for $645. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

ISLAMIC, Anatolia & al-Jazira (Post-Seljuk). Artuqids (Kayfa & Amid). Nur al-Din Muhammad. AH 570-581 / AD 1174-1185. Æ Dirhem (31mm, 14.64 g). Dated AH 571 (AD 1175/6). Nimbate angel (Gabriel?) facing, right wing raised, left wing back, holding scroll over outstretched arms; date in field / Five line Arabic legend. S&S 9; Album 1821.1. VF, unusually nice for this type.


S&S prefer a Christian prototype for the angel holding a scroll, but as Kolbas points out in her review article “Developments in Jaziran Pictorial Coinage”, NumChron 1998 p. 271 the central Asian hadag or ceremonial cloth is often depicted in the same manner, not in a Christian context.