| SPECIFICATIONS | |
| Denomination | Abbásí |
| Alloy | Silver |
| Type | Struck |
| Diameter | __ mm |
| Thickness | _._ mm |
| Weight legal | 7.39 gms |
| Weight | 7.20 gms |
| Shape | Round |
| Edge | Smooth |
| DieAxis | _____° |
| Mint | Yerivan?,Persia |
| CounterMark | Colombo |
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| Scholten 1285e ; KM #50 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
As this Abbásí was struck in 1680/81 it might have been
countermarked at Colombo in accordance with the placard of 1688
September 4th, which instructed that all
Abbásís and Mahmúdís had to have been
countermarked before 1688 September 30th.
On 1691 January 16th Abbásís and Mahmúdís
were taken from circulation and declared bullion.
By placard of 1702 February 8th, all Persian money was declared
illegal on the Island and Tuticorin (which was then under the Ceylon
administration)
The coin shown above is the plate specimen illustrated in Mitchiner (#2170a).
Mitchiner states that the Sefavid silver coins were the non-local issues most
commonly countermarked by the Dutch in Ceilon.
Scholten lists 4 other VOC/C countermarked Persian
Abbásís struck in Tiflis with years
1285a AH1065 (1654/5) ;
1285b AH1078 (1667/8) in Colombo Museum Catalog No 16 ;
also No 17 (1285c) and No 19 (1285d) with mint town and date unread.
Text from
* Ceylon Coins and Currency By H. W. Codrington. Colombo 1924
Chapter VIII Portuguese - Plate xxx. Page xxx
* The Coins of the Dutch Overseas Territories- 1601-1948
C. Scholten, 1953, Amsterdam: Jacques Schulman. page xxx-xxx
* Moedas Portuguesas 1128-1988, by Alberto Gomes. Lisbon 1987
* Collection Henry Thomas Grogan, J. Schulman, Auction 23-02-1914.
* Non-Islamic and Western Colonies since 600 AD by by Michael Mitchiner.
I thank Jan Lingen who kindly sent me the 300 dpi scans of these rare coin from his collection and are displayed at xxx dpi.