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

Several years ago Roland Dauwe found itvery strange that so few coins wererecorded to be struck in Qumm,considering the importance of the town.Not only was Qumm, and still is, a sacredcity for the Shi'ite Muslims, but itslocation on the main road from Rayy (nowpart of Tehran) to Isfahan was of greatstrategic importance.

During his research it soon became clearthat most Qumm coins, except for someTimurid issues, are all rare to extremelyrare. In the meantime, he found that formost issues a very small number of dieswere used, strengthening his convictionthat a die corpus would be of great use foridentifying the coins with partial dates oreven those with the mint missing.Buying Qumm coins whenever possible, hewas able to build up a collection of more than 300 pieces. With that as a base and after visiting severalcoin cabinets and contacting other private collectors, it was possible to complete little by little his ideaof the minting activity of Qumm.

The coinage is divided into four main groups. The first groupcomprises 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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