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(full name: ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān ibn al-Ḥakam al-Umawī)
Denomination: Follis (AE, bronze)
Date: c. 685–692 AD (pre-reform period)
Ruler: ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān (r. 685–705)
Mint: Uncertain Syrian mint (possibly Emesa / Hims region)
Metal: Bronze
Diameter: approx. 20 mm
Weight: 2.70 g
Die axis: irregular
Grade: VF–F (Very Fine / Fine)
Rarity: Scarce
Frontal standing figure of the ruler in long robes, executed in a Byzantine-derived style but devoid of Christian symbolism (Standing Caliph type).
In the left hand, the figure holds a sheathed sword, identifiable by its broad form and rounded terminal, characteristic of scabbards rather than maces or whips.
In the right hand, a slender vertical object is shown, interpreted as a degenerated globus of authority, deliberately stripped of the cross.
Around, a blundered pseudo-Greek legend, composed of meaningless imitative characters.
A transformed cross rendered as a staff-like, phi-shaped symbol with a looped upper element, set upon three steps, an allusion to the Byzantine Golgotha motif.
The absence of a crossbar confirms that the symbol is no longer a Christian cross; academically it is described as a phi-like / bar-on-pole symbol.
Around, a pseudo-Greek, unintelligible legend.
The coin exhibits a stable sand-brown and dark green archaeological patina, typical of Syrian bronze issues of the late 7th century. Surface wear is present, but the principal iconographic features remain clearly discernible.
This issue belongs to a restricted transitional emission of Arab-Byzantine bronze coinage. In scholarly terms it is classified as Scarce, due to:
its narrow chronological production window prior to the reform of 696/697 AD,
manufacture at regional mints,
large-scale withdrawal and remelting following the monetary reform.
ʿAbd al-Malik ibn Marwān was the pivotal Umayyad caliph who completed the centralization of the state and introduced a comprehensive monetary reform. During his reign, Islamic coinage abandoned Byzantine and Sasanian iconography in favor of purely epigraphic designs.
The present coin represents a crucial transitional stage, documenting the deliberate transformation and neutralization of earlier Christian symbols in the process of creating an independent Islamic monetary system.