Money talks

Sonali Raha meets a Dubai resident who has 13,000 coins in his collection

Last Wednesday, Abdullah bin Jassim Al Mutairi was communicating with London, bidding in the Islamic Coin Auction held by Baldwin's Auctions and Arabian Coins and Metals at the Royal Society of Arts. He had looked at the catalogue, knew exactly what he wanted and was letting the auction know through faxes.

Early this week, Al Mutairi was in Kuwait, speaking on the history of Abbasid coins in Arabia. Later this summer, he will be in Europe, looking up dealers, attending auctions, visiting museums.

Travelling the world for coins seems entirely natural to the renowned UAE national numismatist. "This is my life," said Al Mutairi, the manager of Sheikh Saeed House, Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM).

"I'm not collecting silver and gold. I'm collecting history in my hand," he added, opening his palm and slowly curling his fingers into a globe.

Al Mutairi has an awesome collection: 13,000 pieces of gold and silver coins, 5,000 of them gold. He keeps them in coin envelopes and albums stored lovingly in a safe. His oldest silver coin is an Arab sasanian dirham dated 30 A.H. His oldest gold coin is dated 78 A.H.

"Twenty per cent of my collection is unique," he pointed out. He has, for instance, a particular gold dinar from the Tarfid dynasty minted in Aththar, Saudi Arabia, of which there is only one in the world. He also has a silver dirham minted in Aleppo dated 353 A.H.

That, too, is a prize item. Many of the coins, he said, have taught him to re-interpret history. "I have one dinar from the time of Sulayhid in the name of Ali bin Abdullah.

This was minted in a state within Yemen in 533 A.H. Now, the history books tell us that after Queen Arwa died in 532 A.H., this state ceased to exist. But this coin proves otherwise. It shows the state continued to exist, at least for another five-six months," he explained.

Al Mutairi also collects banknotes. He has around 200-250 notes that have been used in the UAE, dating from 1919. But his "first wife", he said laughing, is his coin collection.

Beginning

Al Mutairi's coin collection began simply, almost by accident. He remembered finding an Omani quarter anna on a floor of a mosque in Shindagha when he was around 15 or 16. When he saw the date - 1315 A.H. - he thought it was one of the oldest and rarest coins. So he began collecting coins.

The second piece he bought from a souq. He paid five rupees for the silver Maria Theresa Talar from Austria. "I knew people who travelled, who went regularly to Kuwait, to India. I asked them to give me any extra coins they brought back from their journeys. And I started collecting modern coins," he described.

"In 1974, when I was 18, I went to Egypt. There I bought 60, 70, 80-year-old coins by weight from the market. I then visited all the embassies and asked them to give me coins from their countries. Many told me to go away, other ambassadors took down my address and sent coins around to my house.

"In 1978, I went to India specifically to look for coins. I bought a full collection of British rupees from a dealer in Gandhi bazaar, Bombay. These were coins dating from 1791. East Indian Company coins, William IV coins, Queen Victoria coins, Edward VII coins, George V and George VI coins, plus modern coins of the Republic of India," he explained.

Later, when he started collecting only Islamic coins (1982 onwards), he gave this collection to Sheikh Saeed House.

Today he buys from dealers, auctions and antique shops in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands. He has dealings with Sotheby's and Christie's and knows many private dealers in Europe and the Middle East. He also keeps in touch with museums.

"Every summer I take my family to Europe. For them it is a holiday. But I go only for the coins," he said, smiling.

Al Mutairi is a member of the British Royal Numismatic Society and the American Numismatic Society, among others. He writes on coins in Al Turath magazine published from Abu Dhabi and does a programme on Sharjah television every Friday, again on coins.

Experience

The hobby, he agreed, was difficult to pursue. "You have to have a background in history and geography. You should be able to make a difference between the original and the fake. That is particularly difficult in the beginning.

Later, through experience, you come to know whether it is original or not by the quality of the metal, the fashion in which it was minted, the shine... There are also new scientific ways of telling a real from a fake," he said.

"At the end of the day, collecting coins helps me to know more about history, to learn more about personalities. I learn about history in detail and get a clear idea about the different dynasties. Because coins tell the true history of a people and a nation," said Al Mutairi, looking forward to learning more every day.