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The Numismatic History of the Holy City of Qumm. A Die Catalogue.
by Roland DAUWE

Several years ago Roland Dauwe found it very strange that so few coins were recorded to be struck in Qumm, considering the importance of the town. Not only was Qumm, and still is, a sacred city for the Shi‘ite Muslims, but its location on the main road from Rayy (now part of Tehran) to Isfahan was of great strategic importance.

During his research it soon became clear that most Qumm coins, except for some Timurid issues, are all rare to extremely rare. In the meantime, he found that for most issues a very small number of dies were used, strengthening his conviction that a die corpus would be of great use for identifying the coins with partial dates or even those with the mint missing. Buying Qumm coins whenever possible, he was able to build up a collection of more than 300 pieces. With that as a base and after visiting several coin cabinets and contacting other private collectors, it was possible to complete little by little his idea of the minting activity of Qumm.

The coinage is divided into four main groups. The first group comprises the early traditional coinage, running from the Arab-Sasanian issues to the Great Seljuqs; the second group comprises the Mongol and post-Mongol coins, from the Ilkhans to the Aq Qoyunlu; the third group consists of the issues of the recent Iranian dynasties, from the Safavids to the Qajars; and finally the fourth group comprises the local civic coppers.

Hardcover, 192 pages, format 210 x 297 mm. Price: € 35.00 excl. S/H.

Members of the Numismatic Society of Diest & the Oriental Numismatic Society can buy this book at € 19, excl. S/H.

E-mail: patrick.pasmans@hotmail.com

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