A note on coinage
http://www.amnumsoc.org/collections/cuislam.html
"The term "Islamic coins," in practice, is another way of referring to the coinage of the Near and Middle East after the rise of Islam in the seventh century. Rightly speaking, an Islamic coin is one designed following the traditions of Islam, that is, with inscriptions in Arabic script and no images. Nevertheless, there have been lots of coinages by Muslim rulers with images and inscriptions in other languages, and lots of coinages by non-Muslims (Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Confucians, for example) that have Arabic inscriptions and no images. Most collectors and scholars of Islamic coinage ignore the Islamic coinage of the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia. In sum, there's a difference between the theoretical and the practical."
That's a fun thing, to find the exceptions, because the add a bit to your research, yes!
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Some people do look at coins, tax stamps and such for proof of ruling times, as well as other accounting records, so you are on the right track. Of interest sometimes is if the culture did have some historic medals that depict icons of ruling families and associations. One of those little sidetracks I was looking at was Pisanello and his engraved images of D'Estes, as it gave a view of how the family wanted to be commerated. Leonello in particular was thrilled to get a medal of Julieus Caeser, his favorite hero, from someone at his marriage. I suspect that this encouraged a love of medals and Leonello's choosing of his heroic image of a lion...by the way, if I find a link, I'd like to post it somewhere, as it is a lion being tamed by Cupid.
I enjoyed the links.
Mari H.