The least accessible and understood corpus of Chorasmian materials is probably coinage (and given the state of Chorasmian artefacts and studies overall, that is saying something!). Already in the 1960s, although vast numbers of coins with Chorasmian legends were known, Henning complained that few had been published in a satisfying manner or with decent photographs. In 1977, when Vainberg published what essentially was (and still is) the major work on Chorasmian coinage (complete with clear photos), he commented that “Khwarezmian numismatics is still in a state of formation.” Though the state of affairs may be said to improved slightly in recent years, these appraisals seem more or less to still be valid.
As someone with no numismatic experience, I won’t attempt in this page to provide more than a cursory overview of publications on Chorasmian coinage, together with those references I can track down. As overviews go, Vainberg’s 2005 entry on “Chorasmian Coinage” for the Encyclopedia Iranica is still the best starting point.
- Tolstov, S.P. 1938. The Coins of the Shahs of Ancient Khwarizm and the Ancient Khwarizmi Alphabet. Vestnik drevney Istorii 4/5, 120-145.
- Tolstov, S.P. 1948. Drevnij Khorezm: Opyt istoriko-arkheologicheskogo issledovaniya (Moscow), pp. 173-195 for the coins.
- Frye, Richard N. 1949. Notes on the early coinage of Transoxiana (New York), pp. 16-23 for the coins.
Tolstov’s work was commented on and reviewed by Frye (1950) and Ghirshman (1953); Henning subsequently sent Frye detailed corrections on his own book, which Frye published in 1957.
- Frye, Richard N. 1950. Additional Notes on the early coinage of Transoxiana. Museum Notes 5, 105-114.
- Frye, Richard N. 1957. Additional Notes on the early coinage of Transoxiana II. Museum Notes 7, 231-238.
- Ghirshman, Roman. 1953. S. P. Tolstov, Drevniy Choresm (La Chorasmie antique). Essai de recherche historico-archéologique. Artibus Asiae 16/3, 231-234.
Henning was then to comment in his monumental Mitteliranisch (1958: 57-58) that “Die Entzifferung der Münzlegenden, durch unzureichende Abbildungen unnötig erschwert, ist bislang nicht recht gelungen”.
- Mitchiner, Michael. 1973. The Early Coinage of Central Asia (London: Hawkins). [Review by Brunner, 1977]
- Vainberg, Bella I. 1977. Монеты Древнего Хорезма (Moscow: Akademia Nauk). [Review by Brunner, 1980]
More recent progress on Chorasmian coinology is due to the work of Fedorov (not exhaustive list below); his 2005 article amounts to something of a state-of-the-art report regarding Central Asia generally.
- Federov, Michael. 2005. On Some Articles in the Recent Issues (Nos. V, VI, VII) of the Нумизматика Центральной Азии (Numismatics of Central Asia). Central Asiatic Journal 49/2, 175–203.
- Federov, Michael. 2006. First Reported Find of an Early Medieval Khwarezmian Drachm in the Kyrgyz Republic. American Journal of Numismatics 18, 123–130.
- Federov, Michael and Kuznetsov, Andrew. 2008. A hoard of early mediaeval Khwarezmian drachms from the Kuiuk-kala hill fort. The Numismatic Chronicle 168, 446–451.
- Federov, Michael. 2011. On some previously unknown Khwarazmian drachms and the names of rulers on them. Iran 49, 79–88.
- Federov, Michael. 2012. Returning to the Kuiuk-Kala hoard of early Mediaeval Khwarezmian drachms: Khorezm, eastern delta of the Amu Darya, Kuiuk-kala hill fort, 2008. The Numismatic Chronicle 172, 335–341.
More information to be added here in due course.