26 Centuries of Gold
933 Mardawij: The Great Zoroastrian Hope
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Coin Details
| Origin/Country: |
ISLAMIC DYNASTIES |
| Item Description: |
DINAR AH322(934) Ziyarid MARDAWIJ (3.56g) Mah al-Basra |
| Full Grade: |
NGC MS 63 |
| Owner: |
deposito |
Owner Comments:
Mardawij and his Ziyarid dynasty were not Islamic. He was a Zoroastrian, and his family traced its lineage back to the fallen Sassanian empire. Mardawij planned to conquer Baghdad, remove the caliphate, be crowned in Ctesiphon and restore the Iranian empire. He wasn't Muslim. Like Crusaders after him, his gold coins imitate the prevailing gold coinage of Islamic dynasties surrounding him at the time. Three hundred years earlier upstart Islamic conquerors struck their coins in imitation of Sassanian Persian circulating coinage. This is the only example I know of where a resurgent Zoroastrian ruler struck coins imitating prevailing Islamic currency.
There are 11 of these certified at NGC with one finer than this coin and three others in the same grade as this coin. This coin has obvious swaths of weakness, but compared to what they usually look like, it's pretty good.