Identifying Islamic coins

Calligraphy instead of portraits — and often a written date and mint.

Most Islamic coins carry no images at all: both faces are elegant Arabic calligraphy, typically the declaration of faith with the ruler, mint, and date around it. Gold dinars, silver dirhams, and copper fulus follow this pattern for centuries across a vast area, from Spain to Central Asia.

The marvellous news for cataloguers: many Islamic coins state their mint and year (in the Hijri calendar) explicitly. Even without Arabic, you can match letter shapes against reference images; the coin's fabric — broad thin flan versus small thick one — also separates dynasties.

Photograph both faces sharply and post to the board; calligraphic coins are very identifiable to those who read them. Note weight and diameter, and remember Hijri years convert to roughly AD 622 onward — a dated dirham can be pinned to a single year.

From the guide library inside Collectors Catalogues, a free app for cataloguing antiques and finds with honest, museum-grade records.

More on coins

Identifying coins — Portrait, legend, and strike.

Identifying tokens and jettons — Not quite coins.

Identifying Roman silver coins — Denarii, antoniniani, and siliquae — and how to tell them apart.

Identifying Roman bronze coins — From heavy sestertii to tiny late-Roman nummi.

Identifying Greek coins — City badges, gods, and fabric — reading coins struck before Rome ruled.

Identifying Celtic coins — Abstract horses, wreaths, and heads — coinage reimagined by Iron Age artists.

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