Islamic dirhem 961-976 AD HUGE (43mm) silver multiple of Mansur bin Nuh (961-976), Zaybak mint?, Badakhshan province, Samanid Empire

With "Jid" below the circular inscription on obverse - Mitchiner states that coins with this inscription come from the town of Zaybak in eastern Badakhshan. 43mm, 7.28 grams. Mitchiner WIS 730 var.; Album 1465.

Multiple dirhams were struck out of freshly mined and unrefined silver in the Samanid province of Badakhshan. These were not struck to any single standard (the weight of these pieces can vary from 5 to 15 grams) and probably fulfilled the role of bullion ingots as well as of (probably local) coinage. All these multiple dirhems are rare. The Samanids were a native dynasty in Central Asia and Greater Khorasan, named after its founder Saman Khuda who converted to Sunni Islam despite being from Zoroastrian theocratic nobility.

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