★ Rare and beautifully toned ★

ISLAMIC, Umayyad Caliphate. temp. 'Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan, AH 65-86 / AD 685-705. Drachm (Silver, 29 mm, 4.06 g, 3 h), Arab-Sasanian type, DA + GH (Darabgird, Jahrum), struck by ʿAbd Allah ibn al-Zubayr, rival caliph (AH 60-73 / AD 680-692), YE 60 = 691/2. Draped bust resembling Khosrau II to right, wearing an elaborate mural crown; behind head, ‘GDE / ʾp̄zwt'’ (‘[may his] glory increase’ in Pahlavi); before head, ‘ʾp̄dwlʾ ʾmyl / Y wlwyšnykʾn’ = ‘Abdulā amīr ī wurrōyišnīgān’ (‘ʿAbd Allah, Commander of the Believers’ in Pahlavi); in the outer margin, ‘bism Allāh’ (‘In the name of Allah’ in Arabic). Rev. Fire altar with ribbons, flanked by two attendants; above altar, crescent and star; to left, date in Pahlavi; to right, DA + GH (abbreviation for the name of the mint in Pahlavi). Album 16. Rare and beautifully toned. Areas of weakness and with some doubling, otherwise, good very fine.

From a West German collection, formed since the 1960s.