Iran AH 1160 falus
This specimen was lot 2150 in Steve Album Auction 55 (Santa Rosa, CA, May 2026), where it sold for $144. The catalog description[1] noted, "AFSHARID: Nadir Shah, 1735-1747, AE falus, Peshawar, AH1160, entitled al-sultan nadir on the obverse, mint & date on reverse with the phrase khalad Allah mulkahu above, extremely rare with clear mint & date, VF, RRR." The Afsharids were of Turkic origin, and the dynasty was founded by Nadir Shah when he deposed the last ruler of the Safavid Dynasty in 1736 AD. He expanded Persian rule to areas previously lost to the Ghilzai Afghans in the east and to the Ottomans in the west. However, he was assassinated in 1747 AD and thereafter the dynasty carried on in a weakened state, with various claimants who eventually split off, the most important being the establishment of the Durrani Empire in Khorasan. Peshawar was seized by Nadir Shah from the Mughals in 1738. It fell to the Durranis in 1747 and to the Marathas in 1758. It was traded between the Afghans, the Mughals and the Sikhs over the next century until finally claimed by the British in 1868, after the Mutiny. Altho the SCWC lists Afsharid rupees from Peshawar (KM 396, KM A385.7, KM 377.6) and even gold ashrafis (KM 390.4), no mention is made of any copper coinage.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specifications: 12 g, copper, this specimen 12.50 g.
Catalog reference: KM unlisted, A-D2756.
- Album, Stephen, Checklist of Islamic Coins, 3rd Ed. Santa Rosa, Stephen Album Rare Coins, 2011.
- Michael, Thomas, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1701-1800, 7th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2016.
- [1]Album, Stephen, Joseph Lang, Paul Montz, Michael Barry and Hanbing Feng, Auction 55, featuring Selections from the Swamperbob Gurney Collection of Cap & Ray 8 Reales, the Kenneth A. Bovenkamp Collection of Ottoman Coins and the 1914 Collection of World Coins, Santa Rosa, CA: Stephen Album Rare Coins, Inc., 2026.
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