(1243–1255). The modern dinar's historical antecedents are the
Eastern Roman silver denarius (greek δηνάριο - "dinario"), and
gold dinar and the
silver dirham, the main coin of the medieval
Islamic empires, first issued in
AH 77 (696–697 AD) (
Late Antiquity) by
Caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan. The word "dinar" derives from the Latin word "
dēnārius," a silver coin of
ancient Rome, which was first minted about c. 211 BC. The
Kushan Empire introduced a gold coin known as the
dīnāra in India in the 1st century AD; the
Gupta Empire and its successors up to the 6th century adopted the coin. The 8th-century English king
Offa of Mercia minted
imitations of
Abbasid dinars struck in 774 by Caliph
al-Mansur with "Offa Rex" centred on the reverse. The
moneyer likely had no understanding of
Arabic as the Arabic text contains many errors. Such coins may have been produced for trade with
Islamic Spain. These coins are called a
Mancus, which is also derived from the
Arabic language. == Legal tender ==