COINAGE OF THE MONGOLS

As nomads, the Mongols had little use for money. They measured wealth in horses, sheep and cattle. They valued well-made weapons, bridles and saddles. But when they came to rule the sophisticated urban economies of central Asia, Iran, and China they had to adopt forms of currency that were familiar and acceptable to these populations.

Coins of the Mongol empire therefore fall into two categories.

Coins for use in Muslim areas follow the well-established pattern of Islamic coinage: gold, silver and copper denominations with Arabic inscriptions and geometric decoration.

Coins issued for East Asian parts of the empire look Chinese – mainly cast bronze with a square hole in the center.

But there are exceptions to these patterns, many of great rarity and historic interest. A wide variety of languages and writing systems appear on the coins of Mongol rulers, and while there were no portraits there are occasional pictorial designs.

Genghis Khan
The gold and silver issues bear the Khan's name on one side, and an Arabic inscription with the name and titles of the Muslim caliph, a powerless figurehead under the thumb of warlords in distant Baghdad, on the other.

The only silver coin type bearing the name of “The Just, The Great, Genghis Khan” in Arabic was a dirhem of about three grams, first issued around 1221.

The Golden Horde
The coinage of this period was minted at Saray on the lower Volga river. These small, crudely-struck silver pieces weighing less than a gram bear Batu's tamgha or clan symbol–a double-ended trident (reminiscent of Zeus' thunderbolt or Indra's vajra)–on both sides.

Berke converted to Islam, and later coins of the Golden Horde generally bear Arabic religious inscriptions.

Jani Beg, Khan of the Golden Horde from 1342 to 1357 placed the image of a lion (looking like a rather scruffy dog) on some of his coins.

Into China: The Yuan Dynasty
The earliest Mongol coins may be very rare cast silver pieces (about 2.5 grams) with a square hole in the center and four Chinese characters on one side (Ta Chao Tong Bao) meaning “Great Dynasty Currency”. Examples have been found at Karakorum, the capital of the Great Khans in Mongolia. Some experts attribute these to Genghis Khan (before 1227); others argue that they were produced under Kublai (ca. 1260 – 1280). About 250 examples are known. In a 2012 auction one sold for US$1,350 (Stephen Album Rare Coins Auction 14, Lot 851).

The complex Chinese written characters were unsuitable for writing the Mongol language, and Kublai commissioned a Tibetan monk and court official named Drogön Chögyal Phagpa to design a universal alphabet of 36 letters that could be used for all the languages of the empire. This intricate, angular script appears on many coins of the Yuan dynasty, either alone or in combination with Chinese characters.

To read the complete article, see:
(www.coinweek.com/expert-columns/mike-markowitz/coinweek-ancient-coin-series-coinage-mongols/) CoinWeek Ancient Coin Series: Coinage of the Mongols

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NEW BOOK: COINS OF THE GOLDEN HORDE (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v19n20a03.html)

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