How to Identify the Seljuk Copper Fals

What It Is

The fals (plural fulus) was the everyday copper coin of the medieval Islamic world, and the Seljuk dynasties, including the Great Seljuks of Iran and Iraq and especially the Seljuks of Rum in Anatolia, produced a particularly rich and visually striking series of these coins from the 11th through 13th centuries. As small-value coinage used for local, everyday transactions, fulus were struck in large quantities and at many different local mints, resulting in significant variety even within a single ruler's reign.

Obverse Design

Most Seljuk fulus carry Arabic inscriptions in Kufic or Naskh script conveying religious formulas such as the Islamic declaration of faith (the Shahada), along with the name of the reigning sultan and often an acknowledgment of the Abbasid caliph as a nominal overlord.

Reverse Design

What makes many Seljuk fulus, particularly those of the Seljuks of Rum, especially recognizable is unusual figural imagery unexpected in Islamic coinage, including lions, eagles, a sun-face, a mounted horseman, or fantastical creatures such as a sphinx, often filling the field alongside or instead of purely textual designs.

Size, Weight, and Metal

Seljuk copper fulus have no single fixed weight standard, since local mints adjusted weight and size considerably by period and region; diameters commonly range from about 20 to 30mm, and the copper often shows heavy corrosion or a dark patina from long burial or circulation.

Mint Marks and Where to Find Them

The mint city and the date of striking are typically spelled out in Arabic within the coin's inscriptions rather than shown as a separate symbol, following standard Islamic numismatic practice, so identifying the mint requires reading the full legend.

Telling It Apart from Similar Coins

Contemporary Ayyubid and Artuqid rulers in the wider region also issued figural copper coinage, so distinguishing a Seljuk fals from these requires reading the ruler's name and titles in the inscription rather than relying on the figural imagery alone, since animal and astrological motifs were shared stylistic trends across several dynasties of the period.

Judging Condition at a Glance

Because these are base-metal coins that often circulated heavily and suffered corrosion, judge condition mainly by how much of the Arabic legend and figural design remains legible under the patina, rather than expecting the surface preservation typical of silver or gold coinage. A coin where the ruler's name and the central figural motif can both still be read is considered notably better preserved than the many examples found heavily encrusted or worn smooth.

Authenticity Red Flags

Be cautious of coins with suspiciously uniform, bubbly, or pitted surfaces suggesting a modern cast copy, filed or altered edges, or a weight and thickness inconsistent with genuine hand-struck examples, and compare the ruler's name and titulature against documented Seljuk issues.