The Ministry of Culture purchased this Thursday at auction, through the exercise of the right of first refusal, 88 Islamic coins from the Tonegawa collection for an amount of 215,000 euros, as reported by Ernest Urtasun's department.
The Tonegawa is a private collection made up of some 2,000 Islamic coins from different periods and origins - among them, more than 200 gold coins minted in al-Andalus and North Africa mints -, of which the Auró&Calicó house in Barcelona auctioned nearby of half a thousand in individual lots.
As a precautionary measure, before the auction, the Ministry of Culture had expressly declared a total of 16 coins unexportable.
Ministerial sources affirm that the decision to prohibit their departure from Spain was taken because they were pieces of great "rarity, value and in many cases unique."
This Friday closes the first of the four parts into which the auction of this numismatic set has been divided, which is considered "the best private collection of Arab coins in Spain", according to what Sebastián Gaspariño, one of the most prominent experts in the sector, wrote. sector and who died last year.
The acquired pieces are incorporated into the state public collections and will be housed in the Numismatic Cabinet of the National Archaeological Museum (MAN).
More information
The best private collection of Andalusian coins in Spain could leave the country after being auctioned
The Podemos deputy in Congress Martina Velarde had urged on February 6 the Ministry of Culture and the Community of Madrid, where the collection that is being auctioned is kept, to “put all the means at their disposal to prevent the largest collection of Andalusian coins from history” left Spain.
That is why the Urtasun team reacted quickly and declared them unexportable.
Dinar of Ali ibn Hammud, claimant to the caliphate.EEA
The name of the seller, a collector or several, who transferred the images of the monetary set in August 2023 to the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), which hosts them on the website of the School of Arab Studies (EEA), has not been made public. ).
The director of the collection, who does not necessarily coincide with its owner, is the member of the Royal Academy of History Tawfiq Ibrahim, as reflected in his CV.
On the CSIC website where the images are hosted, they thank him for his collaboration “for his help and advice”, but also two more people, Fawzan Barrage and Sebastián Gaspariño.
The pieces for sale, about 450 in the first auction, correspond to the “early times of the conquest” (feluses and Ifrikiya), Governors, Emirate (dirhems), Caliphate and Taifas, in addition to some of the Almoravid and Almohad periods and Nasrids of Granada.
Ifrikiya dinar from the year 101 of the Hegira that goes up for auction in Barcelona.EEA
The most notable pieces declared unexportable are, among others, a first golden coinage from the caliphate of Abd al-Rahman III, when he proclaimed himself "protector of the faith" or "caliph", and a dinar from the period of the governors of the year 109 of the Hegira, “of which no other specimen is known,” according to the information offered by the auction house to interested parties.
Also noteworthy are a dinar from the Al-Hakam II caliphate, from the year 363 of the Hegira, which is a “variant with five lines on each side, extraordinarily rare and we have not had any specimen,” the auctioneer states on its page, in addition to a dinar from 408 of the Hegira of Ali ibn Hammud, claimant to the Caliphate.
“Very rare,” they say.
In addition to the 88 coins destined for the MAN, the Ministry exercised the right of first refusal on four more lots, for a value of 13,600 euros, acting on behalf of the Board of Trustees of the Alhambra and Generalife, charged to the budgets of that institution, which will incorporate these pieces into the collection of the Alhambra Museum since all of them correspond to Granada coinage from the Nasrid period.
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