AE Follis 4.10g. 26mm. after AH555 Mayyafariqin mint
Square counterstamp 'Lillah' on Byzantine anonymous follis host.
Byzantine host.
C/M: Lowick MH 17; Album 1958; Host: SB Anonymous Class J 1900 on 1888?
Brown patina with some rusty spots. Counterstamp VF, host Good Fine.
Mild porosity and roughness.
Includes ticket citing that this coin is ex. Mardin Hoard (though we disagree with its reading of the counterstamp--the edges of the stamp are straight, not round).
Though this counterstamp is anonymous, Lowick attributes it to an Artuqid ruler, likely Najm al-Din Alpi. This example is struck on an anonymous Byzantine follis attributed to the reign of Alexius, 1081-1118 A.D., itself overstruck, likely on a follis of Nicephorus III. Only 70 coins with this stamp were present in the Mardin Hoard.
The Mardin Hoard was a large group of copper coins found before 1972 in the vacinity of Mardin in modern-day southeastern Turkey. The hoard consisted of at least 13,500 pieces, including around 2,200 Byzantine folles countermarked by local Islamic rulers, as reported by N. M. Lowick, author of 'The Mardin Hoard,' a 1977 book published to document the countermarks found on the coins. The hoard was important in further understanding patterns of circulation and countermarking of Byzantine coins still being used in lands recently claimed by Islamic rulers. Most examples are heavily worn from circulation and many are countermarked several times, some on top of each other.
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