Real coins·14 May 2026·4 min read
The Islamic gold dinar — the coin without faces
Instead of emperors, the Islamic dinar carried only words. A coin that united trade from Spain to India.
From the late 7th century, the caliphate struck gold dinars which, unlike Roman coins, bore no faces, only inscriptions. They were a statement of identity and trust.
The medieval trade network
The dinar and its silver relative, the dirham, fueled one of the largest trade networks of the medieval world — Arab dirhams have been found buried as far as Scandinavia and the Volga.
