Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Dirham 'Ornamental type' - anepigraphic Bulghar mint
| Issuer | Golden Horde |
|---|---|
| Year | 1280-1310 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 1.3 g |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Anepigraphic field bearing a large stylized tamgha (dynastic emblem) in the form of a crescent or bow-shaped device with an upward-curving finial, rendered in low relief at center. The field is adorned with scattered pellets arranged in small groupings around the central device, serving as decorative fillers in lieu of any inscription. The flan is irregular in outline, characteristic of hammered coinage of the Golden Horde period. No legends or script appear on this face, consistent with the ornamental anepigraphic type struck at Bulghar. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Plain |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
The anepigraphic "ornamental" dirhams of the Bulghar mint present one of the more puzzling episodes in Golden Horde numismatics. Bulghar — the old Volga Bulgarian capital on the Kama-Volga confluence — functioned as the primary northern mint of the Horde, and these pieces were struck during a period of administrative turbulence following the reign of Möngke Temür, when central authority over provincial minting was inconsistent enough to permit issues carrying no inscriptions at all.
Whether the absence of epigraphic content reflects a deliberate local convention, a transitional administrative gap, or simply an unresolved attribution problem among the cataloguers remains debated. Sagdeeva's sequencing places them between identifiable reign issues without committing to a specific khan.