Sicilian gold coin

Straight after the conquest of Sicily, the Normans put in place an original and innovative monetary system, blending Latin and Arabic legends. Gold coins dominated this coinage, in the form of fractions designated by a term of Arabic origin, tari (meaning “newly minted”). The used of gold coinage in the exchanges around the Mediterranean and as a result in Sicily, was generalised from the era of the Aghlabid sovereigns of Kairouan, while at the same time Europe mainly used silver coins: in fact, the Muslim dynasties living on the southern shores of the Mediterranean minted gold brought from the caravans of the Sudan and Nubia. Although the first Norman gold coins were imitations of Fatimid coins minted in Sicily, in particular the ruba‘i dînâr or “quarter of dinar”, the Norman sovereigns were nevertheless able to impose an exclusive monetary system, which prohibited the use of foreign coins, above all Fatimid and Almoravid coins (whose main denomination was the gold morabatin).

Norman coinage is sometimes presented in the continuity of monetary issuances from the towns of Amalfi and Salerno (Italy) which in the second half of the tenth century had issued gold coins in imitations of Fatimid dinar quarters from Sicily. However, if the coins from Salerno and Amalfi were issued on feebler and feebler monetary standards, the Fatimid and Norman coins were reputed for their value and high proportion of precious metal. Norman coinage was based on gold coins weighing an average of 1.05 g, with a gold percentage of 69 to 71%. If in commercial exchanges gold prevailed, nevertheless the use of very small silver coins lasted; called kharrube (carob grains, kharrub in Arabic, served as a unit of measurement for silver and are at the origin of our “carat”), these silver coins were in fact fractions of the dirham with a very low fine metal content.

It was mainly in Palermo that Norman coins were produced in gold and a very low quantity of silver. Other workshops are evidenced in Sicily for tari minting, such as Agrigento and perhaps Messina. On the other hand, it seems that copper coins (follaro) originate exclusively from Messina. Although our coin does not explicitly carry the name of the town where it was minted, it is very probably that it was issued by the Palermo workshop.

The presence of a legend in Arabic on this coin reminds us that the first Norman sovereigns wished to assimilate the traditions which already existed on their arrival. This inscription, situated on the back, corresponds to an abridged version of the shahâda or profession of faith, commonly used on oriental coins since the creation of Muslim coinage by the Omeyyad caliph ‘Abd al-Malik in 697. Thus, Fatimid coins displayed legends which were very similar, most often completed by the formula wa ‘Alî walî Allâh “and ‘Alî is the protégé of Allâh »[1]. As for the large letter which adorns the right hand side of this coin and that we find also on certain silver coins, its precise meaning has long remained a mystery: at one time, it was thought that this capital T was the initial of the term tari, or even the name of the Norman sovereign Tancred or even the initial of Trinacria (ancient name for Sicily). Today the hypothesis most commonly believed is that of a Christian cross in the form of Tau[2]. If this copy is anonymous, other coins with Tau and Roger I adapt the Norman title in Arabic and present the sovereign as Qûmis Siqilliyya “the Count of Sicily” or Sultân Siqilliyya “the master of Sicily”.

[2] Nineteenth letter of the Greek alphabet.