Coin
Unknown Artist
probably 8th–9th century
Medium
Copper
Classification
Coins
Department
Islamic Art
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1939
Accession Number
39.40.127.396
Art Historical Context
This copper coin, dating to the 8th–9th, hails from the vibrant era of the Abbasid Calate, a golden age of Islamic civilization centered in Baghdad. As a modest yet essential artifact in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Islamic collection—acquired through the Rogers Fund in 1939—it exemplifies the standardized coinage that fueled the empire's vast trade networks from the Mediterranean to India. Crafted from copper, the everyday metal for smaller denominations known as *fals*, it circulated widely among merchants, farmers, and travelers, underscoring the caliphate's economic sophistication. Ar...