ISLAMIC, Persia (Post-Mongol). Safavids. Abu'l-Muzaffar Isma'il I, AH 907-930 / AD 1501-1524. Mithqal (Gold, 21 mm, 4.68 g), Tabriz, AH 928 = 1521/2. Shiʿa kalima in a central looped circle, ‘lā ilāha illā Allāh / Muḥammad rasūl Allāh / ʿAlī walī Allāh’ (‘There is no deity but Allah. Muhammad is the messenger of Allah. Ali is the friend of Allah’ in Arabic); the names of the twelve shiʿa imams in the four surrounding segments. Rev. Within a quatrefoil, ‘zarb-e Tabriz / sana-ye 928’ (‘Struck in Tabriz, year 928’ in Persian); traces of the king’s full titulature around, ‘al-Sulṭān al-ʿĀdil al-Kāmil al-Hādī al-Wālī Abu’l-Muẓaffar Shāh Ismāʿīl Bahādur Khān al-Ṣafawī al-Ḥusaynī …’. Album 2572. Rare. Areas of weakness and with a scrape on the reverse, otherwise, good very fine.

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