Open Mithqal Dirham/Dinar System

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Open Mithqal Dirham/Dinar System
presented by Prof. Tariq Kahn
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Man and metals

• Process Metallurgy is one of the oldest applied
  sciences. Its history can be traced back to 6000
  BC. Admittedly, its form at that time was
  rudimentary, but, to gain a perspective in
  Process Metallurgy, it is worthwhile to spend a
  little time studying the initiation of mankind's
  association with metals.

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• Currently there are 86 known metals. Before the
  19th century only 24 of these metals had been
  discovered and, of these 24 metals, 12 were
  discovered in the 18th century. Therefore, from
  the discovery of the first metals - gold and
  copper until the end of the 17th century, some
  7700 years, only 12 metals were known.

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• Four of these metals, arsenic, antimony , zinc
  and bismuth , were discovered in the thirteenth
  and fourteenth centuries, while platinum was
  discovered in the 16th century. The other seven
  metals, known as the Metals of Antiquity, were
  the metals upon which ancient civilisation was
  based.

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• These seven metals were
• (1) Gold (ca) 6000BC
• (2) Copper,(ca) 4200BC
• (3) Silver,(ca) 4000BC
• (4) Lead, (ca) 3500BC
• (5) Tin, (ca) 1750BC
• (6) Iron,smelted, (ca) 1500BC
• (7) Mercury, (ca) 750BC

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• These metals were known to the Mesopotamians,
  Egyptians, Greeks and the Romans. Of the seven
  metals, five can be found in their native states,
  e.g., gold, silver, copper, iron (from meteors)
  and mercury. However, the occurrence of these
  metals was not abundant and the first two metals
  to be used widely were gold and copper. And, of
  course, the history of metals is closely linked
  to that of coins and gemstones

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• Thus we find the first problem in process
  metallurgy The metal deposit must be
  identified. In the case of the first metals color
  was the most important factor as it allowed the
  metal to be recognized in surrounding rock,
  stones, gravel and dirt (gangue) and separated.
  Clearly, after recognition, separation is next
  problem followed by concentration.

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• These three steps are very important and the
  economics of these steps usually define whether
  it is viable to produce the metal from a set
  deposit. In the early days all three steps were
  carried out simultaneously. Gold is widely
  dispersed throughout the earths crust (0.005 ppm)
  at a very small level, therefore, it is very
  important to find naturally occurring
  concentrations. The scarcity of gold and its
  value, due to mankinds fascination with its
  color, have lead to gold being the one of the
  more important metals in daily life alongside
  silver, which was often associated with it.

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The karat scale
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Gold Quality

• Gold's purity is measured in karats. The term
  "karat" harks back to the ancient bazaars where
  "carob" beans were used to weigh precious metals.
  24 karat is pure gold, but its purity means it is
  more expensive and less durable than gold that is
  alloyed with other metals. Different alloys are
  used in jewelry for greater strength, durability
  and color range.

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• The karatage of the jewelry will tell you what
  percentage of gold it contains 24 karat is 100
  percent, 18 karat is 75 percent, and 14 karat is
  58 percent gold. When comparing gold jewelry, the
  higher the number of karats, the greater the
  value.
• Thus 1 karat 4.16 of Gold
• Karat is therefore a measure of purity, not
  weight, although there is a obvious relation.

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Silver

• Although silver was found freely in nature, its
  occurrence was rare. Silver is the most
  chemically active of the noble metals, is harder
  than gold but softer than copper. It ranks second
  in ductility and malleability to gold. It is
  normally stable in pure air and water but
  tarnishes when exposed to ozone, hydrogen sulfide
  or sulfur. Due to its softness, pure silver was
  used for ornaments, jewelry and as a measure of
  wealth. In a manner similar to gold, native
  silver can easily be formed. Silver's symbol is
  Ag from the latin argentum.

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• Another development in metal processing was the
  discovery that if bone ash was added to lead
  oxide, the lead oxide would be adsorbed and a
  large amount of material containing silver could
  be processed. By 2500 BC the cupellation process
  was the normal mode of silver manufacture.

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Ancient African Kindoms and Gold and Silver trade

• Ibn al-Faquh, an Iranian scholar compiling
  material for an encyclopedia of the Muslim world,
  wrote the following CE. 900
• It is said that beyond the source of the Nile
  is darkness and beyond the darkness are waters,
  which make the gold growto the town of Ghana is
  a three months journey through deserts.
• Al-Bakri, a historian in Cardob3, later used
  travelers and traders reports to describe the
  Kingdom of Ghana in his Book of Roads and
  Kingdoms, CE 1068. He wrote
• Ghanais a title given to their kings the name
  of the region in Awkar, and their present king,
  who came to the throne in 1063, is Tunka Manin.
  He rules an enormous kingdom, and has great
  powerWhen he calls up his army he can put
  200,000 men in the field, more than 40,000 of
  them archers (Davidson, 1984,p. 90).

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MITKAL

• Also romanized as mitgal and mithkal. From
  pre-Islamic times to the present, an Arabic unit
  of mass for gold and precious stones.

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• In Africa, 13th 20th centuries, the principal
  unit of mass in the trade in gold dust between
  West and North Africa, 1/6th of the North
  African trade ounce, about 4.5 grams. The trade
  ounce was descended from the Roman ounce, which
  had been similarly divided into 6 sextarii.

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• According to Garrard (1980),  the eastern part of
  the Akan area, in what is now Ghana, tended to
  use a weight series based on this mitkal, while
  to the west, in present-day Ivory Coast, a series
  based on the trade ounce was more common. He
  explains the difference by the difference in
  predominant trade items Ghana produced more gold
  dust, while the future Ivoriens traded ivory and
  other more massive items.
•  

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• In North Africa and the Sahel, for coined gold
  the mitkal (or dinar) was reckoned at 6 2/3
  mitkals to the ounce, so the mitkal was about 4.5
  grams.
• In Mande, a language often used in trade in West
  Africa, the word was metikale.

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• In the Sudan, a unit of mass 40 habba. The
  mitgal equals 40 habba of gold, and the kirat 10
  habba (i.e., 1 mitgal 4 kirats), One mitqal is
  thus about 1½ dirhem, about 4.4 to 4.68 grams
  (72.22 grains of barley cut to uncut)

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• In the Umdatus Salik ala Madhab Imam ShafiI,
  Imam Nawawi is related on Zakaat.
• Imam Nawawi states the amount for Zakaat Nisab,
  interestingly, related to the Mithqal and not the
  dinar, and relates the dirham to the mithqal.

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• He says
• Wa nisabu al-dhahabi ashroona mithqallan wa
  zakaatu nasf mithqallin.
• the nisaab for zakaat on Gold is 20 mithqals and
  the zakaat payable is ½ a mithqal

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• Again when it comes to silver, he says
• Wa zakaatu hamsatu dirhama
• the zakaat on nisab of silver is 5 dirhams.

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• In the Umdatus Salik ala Madhab Imam Malik, Imam
  AbulHasan Shadhili says
• fa nisaabi adh-dhahabi ashroona dinaran
• Here clearly, even in the textual usage the dinar
  is estblished as ONE mithqal between the
  comparison of the texts of the Malikis and the
  Shafiis

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• Thus historically the two terms have been used
  interchangebly, the dinar refering to currency,
  and the mithqal to the weight factor.
• The weight and the measure is crucial to the
  establishment of the currency of the Muslims as
  this affects the honesty of trade and exchange,
  as well as the matter of nisaab in Zakaat.

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• Now we know the traditional rate of equivalence
  according to the Sharia rulings in all the
  classical deductions, is
• 10 dirhams 1 dinar
• Thus according to the nisaab ruling of 0.5
  mithqal 5 dirhams verifies the 10 x ruling in
  terms of nisaab equivalence.

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• NOTE the difference.
• The weight ratio is 1 ½ dirham by weight 1
  mithqal (dinar) by weight.
• This is weight NOT value!
• The exchange rate is determined by the nisaab
  ruling during the classical period of 0.5 mithqal
  5 dirhams in VALUE. The metals have different
  value.

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• It leads us however to a tricky problem. We the
  Muslims are NO LONGER IN CHARGE OF THE CURRENCY
  EXCHANGE RATE FOR GOLD AND SILVER! Thus we have
  to start somewhere in the process where we can
  cost effectively return to the sunnah currency,
  as silver is undervalued at times by 72 times
  below gold.

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• This setting of the GOLD price, in London, known
  as the London FIXING, traditionally by a
  Rothchild, shows clearly how the Judification of
  value and the transvaluation of values have
  occurred on a global scale.
• The London fixing, or any gold valuation based in
  London and attached to this terror mechanism
  SHOULD BE REJECTED by Muslims working towards the
  estblishment of bi-metal currencies.

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• The best option to start the minting of OPEN
  SOURCE currency, would then be to make use of the
  low value of SILVER, and to start minting our
  REAL SHARIA COMPLIANT CURRENCY, in Dirhams, based
  of the weight factors described above.

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• 72 grains of barley, have been found to accord,
  statistically, to about 4.4 -4.5 grams,
• Making the minimum nisab at around 88 to 90grams
  of gold.
• The general ruling in Sharia is to be
  precautious, not stingy.

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• On the mithqal equivalency by WEIGHT, the nisaab
  for SILVER DIRHAM or otherwise, is then
  determined as 587 to 600 grams of silver. This
  allows a weight factor variation of 2.93 to
  3.01grams to the coin. Again the higher the
  better in terms of being open handed rather than
  closed fisted.

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Coin Forgeries

• Very difficult traditionally unless pure gold is
  not the object under discussion, and very
  expensive even today, when rare metals, such as
  tantallum in alloys prove unstable.
• If electrum and white gold is in use, then of
  course the nature of the forgery is enhanced.
  Similarly with silver, unless pure silver is used.

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Typical forged coin vs real (left)
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• a fake "Gold coin" dating from 1775, made of a
  ternary alloy Au (30), Ag (21), Cu (49) and
  gilded by mercury process. The selection of such
  a costly alloy was observed and it is shown that
  this derives neither from technical imperatives,
  nor from cost considerations. The cost of these
  forgeries was in that time a useless financial
  exercise and was quickly halted.

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Development of an locally reproducible industrial
process for minting an Open Mithqal standard type
intrinsic value coin

• This part of the presentation introduces a
  technology for localized minting of intrinsic
  value bimetallic coins. The main objective of
  this work is to present the theoretical and
  experimental results obtained during the
  development of the process, which are essential
  for producing this type of coin.

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• The theoretical analysis was based on the
  utilization of the finite-element method to
  characterize metal movement, to establish the
  process sequence and related disk geometries,
  and to design an appropriate geometry for the
  mechanical parts. The practical implementation
  was based on a low cost mechanical press and the
  blanking modules, press and dies were
  re-engineered to achieve the overall objective.

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• Experiments consisted on the coinage of several
  prototypes in copper in order to confirm the
  theoretical predictions and to validate the
  proposed technology, which latter can be seen as
  an alternative to the existing coin technology
  based on centralized mints and mass production
  in large centers away from the users of the
  prospective coins.

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Suggestions by Ahmad Adjie

• The Open Mithqal Standard will have a guidance
  for physical looks of the coins. Currently what
  we have as an advisory is
• Coins must show mint name, year struck, weight
  in ty oz pure gold/silver - - - in the commonly
  used calendar, language and script of the
  community which the mint/guarantor/authority is
  situated and where the coins will be used - - -
  e.g. in English saying INM Cape Town, 2011, 1/10
  oz or 3 gram fine silver.
• Coins may additionally show weight in
  mithqal/dirham, guarantor/authority, date struck
  - - - in any calendar, language and script of
  choice - - - e.g. in Japanese saying the japanese
  date, 3.5 mithqal, Abdullah Ibrahim Yamasaki
• Coins may additionally show Month and/or Date
  struck - - - in the common language and calendar.

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• It is highly recommended for prudent quality
  control for the coins to show a batch number/code
  and/or design that can be traced back to the
  original dates of production and logged
  manufacturing notes that is safely kept within
  each mint under the full access and knowledge of
  the authority/guarantor and shall be open to the
  public.
• Any bas-relief or design of the obverse and
  reverse of the coins can be used by each mint,
  following any principle the mint uses. The art of
  the Muslims of the world depicting
  inanimately-referring forms is highly
  recommended. However, the first batch of each
  independent mint/authority must be as
  economically feasible and efficient for the first
  strikings so much so that the designs can be made
  simpler e.g. for the first 1,000 coins.
• Any edge serrations may be used as well as edge
  reliefs added for thicker coins, blank is also
  acceptable, however, a raised ring edge is highly
  recommended (though not a must) protecting the
  center's obverse and reverse reliefs.

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WIM (Wakala or World Islamic Mint)

• WIM was instituted by Umar Vadilo and currently
  produce coins in the UAE for world distribution.
  The costs of the coins are however heavily
  influence by handling and surcharges altering the
  price by 25 in cases.
• In my opinion this is untennable, and makes the
  coin a commemorative medallion.

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Open Source and Free MINTS

• Islamic Mint Nusantra, founded by Ahmad Adjie and
  Abbas Firman have been producing good quality
  coins and consistent low manufacturing costs.
• The free Mint of Amir Abullah in the United
  States was another early mint that operated on a
  silver dirham standard, albeit a 10 dirham
  version.

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• We have successfully completed the Cape Town
  Mint, with the hard work and incredible
  perseverance of Amir Muhamad Abrahams, and with
  the input of Sidi Abdurahman Phillips, a jeweler
  of renown in the Cape.
• All the details will be made availble as open
  source for any Amirate that may want to copy this
  design and mint dirhams and dinars, following the
  guidelines that we will provide.

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• Thank you
• Any questions?