Umayyad Gold Dinar, 105 AH (723 AD)

A coin that names a gold mine

In the year 77 of the Islamic calendar (696-697) the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan introduced a reformed gold coin, the dinar. Earlier Arab gold had imitated Byzantine coins, with standing figures and a modified cross. The reformed dinar dropped images and carried only Arabic inscriptions, struck to a carefully controlled standard of 4.25 grams, one mithqal. The design was used with little change for the rest of the Umayyad period.

Ordinary Umayyad gold dinars name no mint at all. Almost all of them were struck at a single mint, usually in Damascus, so a mint name was thought unnecessary. Their legends are either verses of the Qur'an or practical information about when they were struck. Against that background, a tiny group of dinars carries something no other medieval Islamic gold coin does: a statement of where the gold itself came from.

The dinars of AH 105 read Ma'din Amir al-Mu'minin bi'l-Hijaz, 'Mine of the Commander of the Faithful, in the Hijaz,' in the last three lines of the reverse field. The circular margin gives the date: 'In the name of Allah was struck this dinar in the year five and one hundred.' The obverse carries the standard declaration of faith in its field and margin.

The Hijaz is the region of western Arabia that includes Mecca and Medina. Because of the added words bi'l-Hijaz, these are the earliest Islamic coins to name a location within the present-day Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and quite possibly the earliest dated objects to do so.

Two caliphs, one year

Amir al-Mu'minin, 'Commander of the Faithful,' was the caliph's formal title, first used by Umar ibn al-Khattab some fifty years before the word khalifa came into use. Because the reformed Umayyad gold and silver coins were anonymous, the 'Mine of the Commander of the Faithful' dinars are the earliest Islamic gold coins to preserve that title. It does not otherwise appear on gold dinars until the caliphate of Harun al-Rashid (AH 170-193).

Two caliphs ruled during AH 105. Yazid II died at Irbid on January 26, 724 (24 Sha'ban 105), and his brother Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik succeeded him. Hisham, born in Damascus around 691, ruled for 19 years, one of the longest reigns of the dynasty. Specialists, following the numismatist George Miles, attribute the Hijaz dinars to Hisham rather than Yazid: Yazid appears to have spent his last year in Syria, while Hisham is recorded traveling to Arabia and giving a funeral speech at the cemetery near Medina later in AH 105.

The sources differ on Hisham's first movements as caliph. One numismatic study says he went straight to Arabia after his accession and did not enter Damascus as caliph until the following year, which would mean these coins were struck by a traveling mint. A modern biography says he received the news at his desert estate and rode to Damascus, where he was publicly acclaimed. Both accounts place him in the Hijaz during the year the coins carry.

Which mine, and why say so

Ma'din means 'mine.' Scholars generally read it literally here, as a place where ore is dug, the same sense it carries on Abbasid silver coins struck less than a century later that name 'the mine at Tashkent.' The French scholar Paul Casanova identified the mine as Ma'din Bani Sulaym, between Medina and Mecca, northwest of Mecca. It is recorded as having been bought around AH 100 by the caliph Umar from the heirs of Bilal ibn al-Harith, to whom the Prophet Muhammad had granted it. If that identification is right, the mine named on the coin belonged to at least three caliphs. Gold was still being worked at the site in 2011, according to a specialist quoted at the time.

Miles showed that the obverse dies of these coins were also used for ordinary Damascus dinars of AH 105, which proves the dies were made in the capital and incidentally confirms the coins' authenticity. He concluded that the coins were struck in Damascus from Hijaz gold. Others argue they were struck in Arabia itself. A major pilgrim road ran right past the Bani Sulaym mine, and the dates of these rare dinars seem to coincide with the caliph's presence in the holy cities, so one theory holds that Hisham visited his mine on the way to Mecca and struck a small quantity of special coins there.

Why the gold's origin was spelled out at all is still debated. One explanation offered by specialists is symbolic: coins marked as coming from the caliph's own mine would have made fitting personal gifts during his time in the holy cities. On that reading they would be the earliest gold presentation coinage of the Islamic world. The question is not settled.

There is an earlier, related type. Under al-Walid I, dinars dated AH 89 to 93 carry the shorter phrase Ma'din Amir al-Mu'minin, without 'in the Hijaz,' on the obverse. The AH 105 coins are the second type and the only one that names the region. An example of the earlier type dated AH 93, believed to be one of two known for that date, was offered at auction in October 2022 with an estimate of $750,000 and hammered at $575,000 before fees.

Three appearances at auction

For a type first recorded by numismatists more than a century ago, the AH 105 dinar has rarely been offered. The most recent census, by Vardanyan in 2022, lists nine published specimens. One belongs to the American Numismatic Society and figured in Miles's die study.

The first to reach public auction sold in London on April 4, 2011. Against an estimate of £300,000 to £400,000, it brought £3,720,000 including the 20 percent buyer's fee. A United Kingdom-based bidding agent bought it for a European private collection, beating four other bidders in the room. A trade report converted the price to $6,013,156.80 and called it the auction record for a non-U.S. coin, nearly double the previous world-coin record and behind only two American coins. The same report also printed a lower conversion of $5,294,340. The same buyer took an Umayyad silver dirham of AH 90 for £1,080,000.

A second example sold at auction in London in October 2019 for the same £3,720,000 with premium (£3.1 million hammer), reported as $4.78 million, equaling the record for an Islamic coin. One report dates the sale October 24 and another October 25. Its pre-sale estimate was £1.4 million to £1.6 million. Both of these coins are reported to be in institutional collections now.

The third, graded NGC AU 50 and struck from the same pair of dies as the 2011 coin, was offered at auction in New York in January 2026 with an estimate of $1 million. It hammered at $1,100,000 and realized $1,347,500 with buyer's premium, the top lot of the sale.

How to recognize one

The type is identified by its reverse: the standard Umayyad legend 'Allah is One, Allah the Eternal, He begets not, nor is He begotten,' followed by three extra lines reading Ma'din / amir al-mu'minin / bi'l-Hijaz, with the date AH 105 in the margin. The earlier 'Mine' dinars of AH 89-93 put the shorter mine legend on the obverse and lack bi'l-Hijaz.

The January 2026 example measures 19.1 mm and weighs 4.04 g, with a 6 o'clock die axis. It is catalogued as Fahmy 130 (same dies), Bernardi 48Ed, Album 134K and ICV 232. Because known examples are die-linked to one another and to ordinary Damascus dinars, die study is central to identifying any coin offered as this type.

The numbers

Denomination

Gold dinar (AV)

Date

AH 105 (AD 723-724); the type is known for this year only

Weight

4.04 g (January 2026 example); Umayyad standard 4.25 g (one mithqal)

Diameter

19.1 mm (January 2026 example)

Composition

Gold, stated on the coin as from the Commander of the Faithful's mine in the Hijaz

Mintage

Not recorded. Specialists infer very small quantities from long-lived dies on the related earlier issue

Known survivors

Nine published (Vardanyan 2022), plus one newly offered in 2026

Designer

Not recorded; the dies were prepared at the Damascus mint

Caliph

Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik (r. 724-743), per most scholars

References

Fahmy 130; Bernardi 48Ed; Album 134K; ICV 232

Timeline

1. 696-697

   Abd al-Malik introduces the reformed, all-inscription gold dinar in AH 77, struck to 4.25 grams.

2. AH 89-93

   Under al-Walid I, the first 'Mine of the Commander of the Faithful' dinars are struck, without the words 'in the Hijaz.'

3. AH 100

   Caliph Umar buys a Hijaz gold mine, identified by scholars as Ma'din Bani Sulaym.

4. January 26, 724

   Yazid II dies at Irbid (24 Sha'ban 105) and Hisham ibn Abd al-Malik becomes caliph.

5. 723-724

   Dinars reading 'Mine of the Commander of the Faithful, in the Hijaz' are struck, dated AH 105, the only year of the type.

6. 1920

   Paul Casanova publishes 'Une mine d'or au Hidjaz,' identifying the mine as Ma'din Bani Sulaym.

7. 1972

   George Miles publishes his study showing these dinars share dies with ordinary Damascus dinars.

8. Apr 4, 2011

   The first example to reach public auction sells in London for £3,720,000 with fee, the auction record for any non-U.S. coin.

9. Oct 2019

   A second example sells in London for £3,720,000 with premium, reported as $4.78 million.

10. 2022

    A census by Vardanyan lists nine published specimens.

11. Oct 27, 2022

    An earlier 'Mine' dinar of AH 93 hammers at $575,000 at auction.

12. Jan 2026

    A third example, graded NGC AU 50 and die-matched to the 2011 coin, realizes $1,347,500 at auction in New York.

The world in July

• July 721

  Yazid II orders the destruction of icons in Christian churches across the caliphate, the date modern historians consider most reliable.

• c. 723

  The missionary Boniface fells Thor's Oak near Fritzlar in Hesse, a turning point in the Christianization of the northern Germanic peoples.

• February 724

  Umayyad commander al-Jarrah ibn Abdallah defeats the Khazars in a battle between the Kura and Araxes rivers.

• March 3, 724

  Empress Gensho abdicates and Emperor Shomu takes the throne of Japan.

• March 724

  Hisham dismisses Umar ibn Hubayra as governor of Iraq and appoints Khalid al-Qasri.

• 724

  In the 'Day of Thirst,' the Turgesh rout an Arab army near Khujand; no further eastern conquests are undertaken until 739.

• 724

  A Muslim fleet raids the Balearic Islands, Sardinia and Corsica.

• December 29, 724

  K'ak' Tiliw Chan Yopaat becomes king of the Maya city of Quirigua, in today's Guatemala.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Umayyad Gold Dinar, 105 AH (723 AD) is number 24 of 100 in the coins entries of the FLOAT 100. 96 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (52 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Ordinary Umayyad gold dinars do not even name a mint. This one names the mine the gold came from.
• The mine it names is recorded as a grant from the Prophet Muhammad to one of his Companions before a caliph bought it around AH 100.
• The caliph's title Amir al-Mu'minin does not appear again on gold dinars until the reign of Harun al-Rashid.
• When the 2011 example sold, the same buyer also paid £1,080,000 for a silver dirham of AH 90 struck in what is now Oman, against an estimate of £20,000 to £30,000.
• The coin sold in 2026 was struck from the very same pair of dies as the one that set the record in 2011.
• A pilgrim road ran past the gold mine; an inscription recording its rebuilding in AH 304 was found among old mine workings there.
• The 2011 sale nearly doubled the previous auction record for a world coin, held by a unique 1755 gold 20-ruble pattern.