199 



Trinity, and probably, also, to the divine honours paid to the Virgin 

 Mary in the Greek Catholic church, to which he was neighbour. 



The occasion of this peculiar feature of Arabian coinage {Cvjic 

 coinage as it is called by numismatists) is detailed by Arabian writers, 

 and is here gathered from Marsden, in his Numismata Orientalia. 



Until the year of the Hegira, 76, or A. D. 695, the Mahomedan 

 empire had no coinage of its own, relying upon what was already 

 current in the country, especially of the Greek-Roman issue, from 

 Constantinople. But the caliph Abdalraalek having adhered to the 

 practice of commencing his epistles to the Roman Emperor with the 

 formulary — "There is but one God, and Mohammed is his prophet" 

 ^ — the latter took offence at what appeared to him an insult, or at least 

 a disparagement of the faith he professed, and threatened to retaliate, 

 by introducing inscriptions upon the coinage which would not be 

 agreeable to the professors of Islamism. The effect of this unwise 

 controversy was such as might have been expected. The caliph 

 took measures for establishing an orthodox mint of his own, and 

 commenced a coinage in A. D. 695. 



It should be added, that the denomination of this coin, dirhem, is a 

 change of the ancient Greek word drachm. The average value of 

 the Arabic dirhem was about twelve cents. The silver appears to be 

 of a high grade of fineness. 



The coin is as yet scarcely known in this country, and is very 

 rare even in Europe, especially in such fine preservation : yet it is 

 remarkable that two such pieces have been dug up of late years in 

 different places in England, where they were probably carried by re- 

 turning crusaders. 



2. Specimens of private mintage in California, fen and five dollar 

 pieces. They so closely resemble the national coin, as to be pro- 

 perly considered counterfeits; with this remarkable feature, however, 

 that they are nearly or quite equal to the genuine issue in value. As 

 the idea of counterfeiting seems almost necessarily to include that of 

 debasement, or fraud, this unique characteristic renders the pieces 

 highly interesting. The difference in the market price of gold bullion 

 at San Francisco and at Philadelphia, is the easy solution of the cir- 

 cumstance. 



3. Three varieties of gold rings, made in the interior of Africa 

 from the gold of that country. The largest of them only is a no- 

 velty; and that on account of its massiveness, being worth about 110 

 dollars. The smallest has a value of only 60 cents. They are un- 

 derstood to serve the double purpose of ornament and currency; but 



VOL. V. 2 E 



