AFGHANISTAN, Dost Muhammad, 1274 AH (1857/8 AD), Ahmadshahi mint

Description

The Barakzai are Pashtuns. They were related to the Durrani kings who ruled Afghanistan in the 18th and 19th centuries. When they came to be mistreated by the Durrani shah war developed, which they won.

“Middle East” is a funny kind of phrase. It “should” mean the “middle,” say, Egypt to Iran. But in common usage it means everything from Morocco in far northwest Africa all the way to Afghanistan. Right? I mean, if I talk about “the Levant,” or Jazira, you have to know something about geography. But if I say “Middle East” you’re going to have a picture in your head. Maybe Cairo, maybe Kabul, but you’ll have the reference.

By “Modern World Coins” we mean here, generally, the round, flat, shiny metal objects that people have used for money and still do. “Modern,” though, varies by location. There was some other way they were doing their economies, and then they switched over to “modern coins,” then they went toward paper money, now we’re all going toward digital, a future in which kids look at a coin and say “What’s that?” We’ll say: “We used to use those to buy things.” Kids will ask “How?” The main catalog reference is the Standard Catalog of World Coins, to which the KM numbers refer.