Owner Comments:
The coins of Morocco are not terribly popular. They aren’t widely collected. Therefore, they also aren’t widely submitted for Third Party Grading and certification. The graders at NGC and PCGS don’t see them very often. That means that the certification process for these coins is fraught with more hazards than submitting your typical Morgan dollar. NGC grades them well (if you know how to accurately grade a coin, then you can pretty easily grade any coin). They might not be as familiar with the intricate subtleties as a specialist, but they grade them well enough. Instead, the hazards I mention come with odd and sometimes incorrect labels (as I mentioned with my 1306 Fes “mitqal” which they meant muzuna but is now a half falus). Another hazard is figuring out which side of the coin is the obverse….
For example, on these small silver half dirham and dirham coins of Moulay al-Hasan, one side has the date surrounded by text, one side has plain text (in Arabic). Depending on which reference you check, some of them will call one side the obverse, and others will call the other side the obverse. Lecompte and Sanchez-Giron both call the date side the obverse; Krause calls the date side the reverse. Since Krause is the reference that most people looking at this set will have the most access to, I’m going to follow Krause. Now, I’d be happy if the TPGs picked one and called it the obverse and were consistent, but alas, that is not the case. Most of my set is graded by NGC, and they are inconsistent – sometimes the date side is holdered out (that is, facing out – usually the obverse is the front of the slab), but sometimes the date side is the reverse. I will endeavor to be more consistent…
Anyways, the present coin is an attractive ½ Dirham from AH1311 (1893 AD), minted in Paris. After the large issue of 1299, subsequent years fell into a fairly stable mintage of between 1 – 2 million per year, 1309 to 1314. This is still a substantial mintage, but these were not saved in high grades. They were intended to be used. And thus, most of the coins you will find are circulated. Finding these in grades like the present MS-65 is difficult. This coin fully earns the grade, with lusterous, lightly toned surfaces. A beautiful coin!