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The coin's weights
are around 2.8 g, its diameter 12-14 mm and its thickness 1-1.5
mm. Its metal composition visually appears to be pure copper. The
existing coins are generally fairly well struck
The proper reading (e.g. the
letter ra might also be read as zay) and voweling,
and therefore the pronunciation of what should be the mint name,
appears not to relate to an existing or known topographical name
in the Yemen, and has sofar remained an enigma.
Interested numismatists have tried
to identify the coin's inscription as dawari, dawariya or
dawazia etc. with known names in the Yemen, using
historical literature and narrative sources, not only going
thorough indexes, but also checking texts. As no corresponding
place name is recorded for this coin, an alternative meaning, e.g.
the coin's denomination came to mind.
The denomination dawari has
apparently been recorded from a 17th century Yemeni source 2)
and it is said to be known from an Iranian coin too3),
but clear references fail. To solve the enigma, it was suggested
that on this coin perhaps the denomination rather than the mint
name is shown. So far the reading of this word has remained a
problem to which this presentation proposes a fitting solution
Dr. Vladimir Suchý has always
insisted that the coin's legend represents its mint name and
suggested to attribute it to a so far unknown mint place. In 2000
he published an article in a Turkish numismatic journal on Selim
II’ s coinage in Yemen, where he has
provided a drawing and a photo of this enigmatic coin and
mentioned two of these coins in the Tuebingen collection which
originate from the former Album collection.4) Since
then several more of these coins have come to light in private
collections.
During the last five years I have
also tried hard to find a proper mint place for this enigmatic
coin. It is well known that the Ottomans did not mint copper
coins in small villages or unimportant places. The coins should
have been minted in important administrative centers. Eventually
I came across this relatively unknown place, Devarya or
Dawariya, an Ottoman fortress, in today’s Eritrea on the west side
of the Red Sea, instead of in Yemen. I found this information in
the book ”Habes Eyaleti” by Cengiz Orhonlu5). The mint
place of this enigmatic coin was Devarya (Dawariya,
Debaroa......etc.) without any hesitation.
When I wrote to Dr. Suchy about
this discovery, in return he immediately sent me copy of a letter
by the late Samuel Lachmann6), dated 20th November
1990 (see attached). As you will find in this attachment, Lachmann
was not as lucky as I, to read Orhonlu’s book but he had cleverly
suggested 15 years before me, that this coin was struck in
Debaroa.
Solving the problem
Debaroa was located in present day
Eritrea. It was briefly the capital of the Ottoman Habesh Eyalet
(province) during the early period (later the seat of that
Ottoman administration was moved to Sawakin on present day Sudan's
Red Sea coast). It was a fortress named variously as Debaroa,
Debarva,and Devarya . In Orhonlu’s book, although the author
himself has used Debaroa and Debarva rather than Devarya, in
official documents given in the book7), the name of
Devarya has been used instead of Debarva. Documents have been
written with divani calligraphy. In divani line  (dal)
is written like  and
sometimes  (ti) is
used instead of  in
Ottoman Turkish. But normally as it is the case on the mangir,  has
been used. Devarya in one official document was written8) but in
an other one was written9) . In
all cases it is normally read Devarya (Dawariya).
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