Fatimid-style kharruba imitations
Late Muslim / early Norman period; undated · Unknown makers — not official Fatimid issues
Crude copies of Fatimid religious inscriptions, without an identified caliph. Brown separates these imitations from official Fatimid money. The various copied legends remain one broad group here, rather than being turned into invented ruler or date types.
Technical specifications
- Composition
- Debased silver / copper alloy; specimen composition varies
- Weight
- Unknown / not verified
- Diameter
- Unknown / not verified
- Thickness
- Unknown / not verified
- Fineness
- Unknown / not verified
- Total mintage
- Unknown / not verified
- Edge
- Unknown / not verified
- Mint
- Unknown / not verified
- Obverse
- Unknown / not verified
- Reverse
- Unknown / not verified
- Inscriptions
- Unknown / not verified
- Colour
- Unknown / not verified
- Serial format
- Unknown / not verified
The article records 63 National Museum and 59 private-hoard examples. A single analysed example contained 15% silver and 85% copper; that result is not the composition of every coin. Among 53 weighed examples, weights were 0.13–0.40 g, mean 0.24 g; diameters were 9–10 mm. These group observations are not nominal specifications. No individual specimen measurements are assigned.
Brown examined the National Museum group donated by Alfredo Caruana Gatt in 1908 and a related private group. Their original findspots are unrecorded. The author regarded them as probable Maltese hoards, not securely documented excavations. Their contents extend from the 1030s to around the second quarter of the twelfth century. This does not date every individual design to that whole interval.
Dating and classification
The hoard association and broad historical attribution do not provide an exact issue year. No annual minting sequence or local Maltese mint is inferred.
Sources
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