Samanids

Находки на монети,сечени от Сасанидска Персия,Китай,Арабския халифат и Саманидския емират в Средна Азия от епохата на Ранното Средновековие и Първата Българска държава(681-1018г.),открити и намерени на територията на Съвременна България.

Finds of Sasanian, Kufic and Far Eastern coins from the territory of modern Bulgaria 
Lubomir Vassilev 
(Abstract) 
This article considers altogether 18 coin finds of Sassanian, Kufic and Far Eastern coins from from the territory of modern Republic of Bulgaria. They are the following: 

Two finds of Sasanian coins – 1 pierced silver drachm of shah Khosrow II (591-628 AD) - from Veliko Tarnovo district, Northern Bulgaria; and 1 copper coin of denomination “pashiz” with countrermark also of Shah Khosrow II (591-628) - from Varna district, Northern Bulgaria;

One find of Far Eastern coin – Chinese bronze coin(!) – ‘cash’ with legend “T`IEN-HAN YUAN-PAO” of emperor Kao Tsu (907-918) from the Shu dinasty, with date 912-913 AD - from Veliko Tarnovo district, Northern Bulgaria;

Fifteen finds of Kufic Early Medieval coins which are the following:  1) Ummayad copper falls from Plovdiv, Southern Bulgaria, of caliph Hisham ibn Abd-al Malik (724-743) with date 112H/730 AD minted in Al-Kufah (today Kufa in Iraq) from the governor of the Caliphats province of Iraq – emir Khalid ibn Abdallah ibn Asad al-Kasri (724-738); 2) silver dirham, minted in Damascus of the Abbasids of caliph Harun al-Rashid (786-809) from the town Assenovgrad in the region of Plovdiv, Southern Bulgaria;  3) gold dinar of the dinasty of Abbasids of caliph Abu Abdallah Muhammad al-Mahdi (775-785) with date 168H/784 AD - from the village Dolen Chiflik in the region of Varna - Northern Bulgaria;  4) half part from imitation of gold dinar-fourree (gold on copper alloy weighing) of caliph Abu Abdallah Muhammad al-Mahdi (775-785) - from village Zhjilino in the region of Shumen - Northern Bulgaria;  5) silver dirham from the biritual pagan Bulgarian necropolis to village Topola in the Region of Dobrich, Northern Bulgaria, of the caliph from the dinasty of Ummayads – Abd-al Malik ibn Marwan (685-705) with date 86H/704 AD;  6) silver dirham of the dinasty of Ummayads from unknown location in North-Eastern Bulgaria from the first half of 8th century (with an obscure date and year - 94Н/713 AD?; 97Н/716 AD?;  99Н/718 AD? – 713-718 AD? – Anonymous type minted at Wasit, with 3 holes; 
7) silver Arabian pierced dirham, very badly preserved, from the period 10th-11th century - from unknown location of the region of Plovdiv, Southern Bulgaria;  8) silver dirham of the Samanids from the period 9th-10th century - from the area of Pomorie, region of Burgas, Southern Bulgaria;  9) silver pierced dirham of the Samanids, minted in Al-Shash (modern Tashkent, Uzbekistan) from emir Abu Ibrahim Ismail ibn Ahmad Samani (892-907) - from Veliko Tarnovo district, Northern Bulgaria;  10) silver dirham of the Samanids with date 284H/897 AD, minted in Al-Shash (modern Tashkent, Uzbekistan) from emir Abu Ibrahim Ismail ibn Ahmad Samani (892-907) from Veliki Preslav (or its from his surrounding area?) in the region of Shumen, Northern Bulgaria;  11) silver dirham of the Samanids, minted in Al-Shash (modern Tashkent, Uzbekistan) from emir Ahmad ibn Ismail Samani (907-914) with hole - from the town of Strazhitsa, region of Veliko Tarnovo, Northern Bulgaria; 12) from the area of modern Bulgarian capital Sofia – 3 silver dirhams of the Samanids minted in Al-Shah (modern Tashkent, Uzbekistan) by the emirs Abu Ibrahim Ismail ibn Ahmad Samani (892-907) - 2 dirhams, and Nasr II ibn Ahmad (914-943) - respectively 1 dirham;  13) from the district of the town Kardzhali, Southern Bulgaria – 4 silver dirhams of the Samanids, by the emirs Abu Ibrahim Ismail ibn Ahmad Samani (892-907) - 2 dirhams, and Ahmad ibn Ismail Samani (907-914) - also 2 dirhams;  14) from the first Bulgarian capital Pliska in the region of Shumen, Northern Bulgaria - one an interesting find – bronze mould for casting coin-shaped brakteats with Arabic text from the period 10th-11th  century; and-  15) A coin hoard with 89 silver Islamic coins from the district of Varna, Northern Bulgaria, from the period VIII-XV century. Among them are 9 silver dirhams: – 4 of the Abbasids (caliphs Abu Jafar Abdallah al-Mansur (753-775) – 1, with date 770 AD, minted in Abbasiye; Abu Abdallah Muhamad al-Mahdi (775-785) – 1, with date 785 AD, minted in Muhamediye, and Abu-l Abas Abdallah al-Mamun (813-833) - 2, minted in Bagdad with dates respectively 819 AD and 820 AD), and 5 of the Samanids in Central Asia (emirs Nasr II ibn Ahmad (914943) - 2, minted in Samarkand, with dates respectively 924 AD and 938 AD; Nuh I ibn Nasr (943-954) - 1, minted in Buhara, in 953 AD; Abd al-Malik ibn Nuh I (954-961) - 1, minted in Buhara through 958 AD, and 1 from Abu Salih Mansur I ibn Nuh (961-976), minted in Buhara in 972 AD). The coin finds object of this article provide new information about the history, numismatics and economy of the modern Bulgarian lands, the Balkan peninsula and SouthEastern Europe through the period of the Early Medieval Age.

Recently there has been a renewed interest in a group of Viking period swords referred to as «Ulfberht»
resulting in a flood of unsubstantiated claims and misinformation. In order to shed more light on this specific
assemblage of swords, their historical context was examined in light of artefactual, numismatic, and textual
evidence. The results provide strong evidence to indicate that those made of crucible steel with the characters
written as «+VLFBERH+T», were made from ingots imported from Central Asia during the first half of the
10th century and they can be associated with the reign of Haakon the Good of Norway. This new information
is important because it narrows the date range for certain sword styles, as well as historical events such
as the introduction of Christianity to Norway, and the relationship between Scandinavia, the British Isles,
and Central Asia.