North Korea 100 Won Uncirculated

These are 50 Paisa issued in VS2004/5 or our dates 1948 and 1949. They are listed as KM718 and the coins on offer are in Extremely Fine condition. We have never seen them in such a high grade before. There are local designs on both sides with the legend in Nepalese which, to be honest, we cannot read. They are silver and in Extremely Fine condition and we have never seen them so nice. It is a coin that you don’t see and we have never offered before and at this price, they are great value.

Everyone has heard of Alexander the Great but most collectors can only dream of owning a coin issued by him. We have just bought a small group of his silver drachms and we got a great deal on them so we are going to pass that deal on to you. On one side you have the head of Herakles wearing a lion’s skin head-dress and on the other side Alexander’s name ‘AΛEΞANΔPOY’ in Greek script with the seated figure of Zeus holding an eagle and sceptre. We can off er them in two grades Fine and Very Fine. Alexander was born in 356 BC and succeeded his father Philip II to the throne at the age of 20. He died in the Palace of Nebuchadnezzar II in Babylon at the age of 32 having created one of the largest empires of the ancient world, his campaigns legendary then and now.

These curiously shaped square silver dirhams were struck by the Almohad Caliphate, founded by Ibn Tumart, a member of the Masmuda, a Berber tribe that controlled much of Northern Africa and Spain at the time. They were struck between 1121-1269 AD making them around 800-900 years old and have Arabic script on both sides showing mint marks and declarations of faith but are undated and anonymous, meaning that they are not attributable to any single ruler. The square shape was probably symbolic and linked to the emergence of the Square Kufi c script that emerged in the 12th century, influenced by Iranian architecture. They certainly weren’t the fi rst to strike square coins as the Indo-Greeks had done this over 1000 years before but since these dirhams are also quite thin, one practical reason for their shape would be to make it easier to cut them from a larger flat piece of metal.