Kufic Coins are the early Mohammedan coins engraved with inscriptions in the Kufic or epigraphic Arabic character, as distinguished from the Neskhī or cursive writing (see ARABIA, Vol. I. p. 367); but the term is often applied erroneously to Arabic coins in general. In the early years of the califate the gold and copper coinage of the Byzantine emperors and the silver coinage of the Sassanians were used and imitated. The Arabic historians refer to several attempts to introduce a distinctive Mohammedan coinage prior to 76 A.H.; but, with the exception of two or three isolated specimens in the Paris Bibliothèque Nationale, on which numismatists are not agreed, there is no numismatic evidence for any such experiments. In 76 and 77 A.H. (695-96 A.D.) the Caliph 'Abd-el-Melik issued gold coins with his own image instead of that of the Byzantine emperor; but, the representation of living creatures being opposed to the law of Mohammed, this coinage was discontinued, and a reformed gold currency, engraved solely with Kufic inscriptions, was inaugurated in 77 A.H. This was supplemented with a silver currency on similar lines in 79 A.H., and the earliest dated copper coin appeared in 80 A.H. The gold coin was called a dīnār (from the denarius), the silver a dirhem (drachma), and the copper a fels (follis). The first weighed on the average 65 grains troy, .979 fine, or rather more than our half-sovereign; the dirhem weighed about 45 grains, .970 fine, or rather more than our sixpence, but was much larger and thinner; the weight of the fels was irregular. The earliest coins present chiefly religious formulas and the year of issue, to which the silver and some of the copper added the name of the mint-city. The names of the califs first appear on gold and silver under the 'Abbāsīs; but with this addition, and sometimes the names of governors and viziers, the gold and silver currency of the Moslem empire remained practically unchanged until the 4th century of the Hegira (q.v.; the 10th A.D.), and even then the break-up of the empire of the califs into numerous minor dynasties did not bring with it any more serious modifications in the coinage than the introduction of the names of princes and sultans and some variation in the style of the inscriptions. During the whole of this period the Arabic character on the coins is still almost universally Kufic; but in the 4th century local peculiarities begin to appear, and various styles are developed, which may be termed transitional Kufic. Examples of these are seen in the coinage of the Ghaznavis of North-west India, and still more marked in the issues of North Africa and Spain, such as those of the Fātimī califs. Occasional idiosyncrasies, in the introduction of Roman and Byzantine images, and even of the figures of Christ and the Virgin, are seen on the coins of the Mesopotamian dynasties of Turcoman race in the 6th century of the Hegira (12th A.D.), which also present beautiful examples of highly-decorative transitional Kufic. In the 7th century (13th A.D.) the Kufic was generally superseded by the Neskhī character throughout the coinage of the Mohammedan world, and attained its greatest perfection on the currency of the dynasts of Granada and Fez, the shahs of Persia, and the rulers of Delhi. Mongol and Sanskrit inscriptions are incorporated with Arabic in the legends of coins struck by the descendants of Genghis Khan in Persia and the Indian kings. Kufic coins are of inestimable value to the historian, for they supply him generally with the names of kings, governors, and califs, and those of their liege-lords, heirs-apparent, and viziers, and often a short pedigree of their ancestry, together with the city where they struck the coins, and the year, and sometimes even the month, of issue. A complete list of Mohammedan coins is a skeleton history of the Moslem empire in all its ramifications, and not seldom a prince or dynasty unknown to history is revealed by the coins alone.
The principal modern authorities on the subject are Sozet, Éléments de la Numismatique Musulmane (1868); Sauvaire, Matériaux pour servir à l'histoire de la Numismatique Musulmane (1885, &c.); Tiesenhausen, Monnaies des Khalifes Orientaux (1873); Lavoix, Catalogue des Monnaies Musulmanes de la Bibliothèque Nationale (vol. i. 1887); Stickel, Handbuch zur moryenländischen Münzkunde (1870); S. Lane-Poole, Catalogue of the Oriental and Indian Coins in the British Museum (12 vols. 1875-90), Catalogue of the Mohammedan Coins in the Bodleian (1888), Essays in Oriental Numismatics (1874 and 1877), Coins and Medals, their Place in History and Art (1885); R. S. Poole, Catalogue of Persian Coins in the British Museum (1888); and among older works, Marsden, Numismata Orientalia (1825; and new ed. 1874, ff.), Fraehn, Recensio (1825).