I collect coins that interest me, and this one did especially because I’m not sure where it comes from or how old it is, due to its heavy wear. I was hoping someone here might recognize it.
Apologies for the scan quality–I couldn’t lighten the images much without losing what little detail I had.
I have attempted to search for coins like this one on Google and elsewhere and haven’t come up with anything.
I’m interested in country of origin, possible age, and what the heck that blob is on the back-side. (It looks sort of like a car to me!)
I see how you mean about the “car” looks like it is jumping over a ramp or hillock if that makes sense? I think it is a token as well, especially considering the way the indian-head side has a rather wide border, which isn’t present on the other side. Could it be a casino token from an “indian casino”?
KAITLIN; E-mail the Washington Square Coin Exchange, sorry don’t know the email addy but they helped me with some CSA currency notes I had…they actually bought them off me for a good price.
We’ll the digits at the bottom are 3-2-2-1, read right to left, (or 1-2-2-3, L-R) and the ones at the top are 10-6-2 (or 2-6-10). I don’t recall which direction Arabic is read.
The numerals are left to right, unlike the language. The date is 1223 in the Arabic calendar, which dates (for most of the world) from 622. So the date is approximately 1845–but not exactly, since the Islamic calendar is not the same length as the Gregorian.
I have a coin with that design, and my coin does have a label on it. If no one identifies it anytime soon, I’ll try to dig it out for comparison.
Thanks for your help. It occured to me that it might be a token, which is just as well. My approach to coin collecting is more for variety, history, and age rather than worth or condition.
jjimm–I don’t think the blob is a buffalo. I can’t make my brain fit it to any shape except a car.
The search continues. I will check for the site spogga mentioned.
The Arabic coin is from Turkey. 1223AH =1808 in Western dating. The reignal year is 26. While it appears to you to be made of copper, it probably is made of very low-grade silver, which looks like copper when worn. Not very scarce in the world of coins.
My guess about the Indian head token is that it COULD be from the US Civil War period, when private merchants made multiple hundreds of different designs.
If I had the coin in my hand, I MIGHT have a better idea.
PS–Spogga. We probably would have paid you MORE for your CSA notes.
OK, the mystery coin has been identified, but I thought I’d add my 2¢. My coin that had a similar design on it is a 1 *Anna coin from India, not a Turkish coin. On one side it has “1 Anna” written in four languages (English, possibly Hindi, Telegu, and some other (probably) Southern India language, maybe Kannada or Malayalam). In the center is that same florid “Arabic-styled” writing (possibly Urdu?). On the other side, in the center, are two (almost) straight marks set at angles to one another, possibly the Urdu “1 alif” for “1 Anna,” with Arabic-styled (again, possibly Urdu) on either side, bounded by a semicircles (or as close as you can get with the stuff occupying the middle.
