Metsqal Pubblico Deposited
A unit of weight for bullion, prevalent in all Muhammadan countries. It is the equivalent of twenty-four Nakhods or Peas, and the Nakhod is equiva- lent to four gandums or grains of wheat. The Committee for the Reform of the Currency in Egypt experienced great difficulty in determining the exact weight, and finally decided to set aside the miscal and adopt the metric system.
Mr. H. L. Rabino contributed an interesting paper on the coins of the Shahs of Persia to the Numismatic Chronicle (series iv. vol. 8) from which the following is extracted :
"When the Imperial Bank of Persia started operations in Persia in 1890, it had to import capital in bar silver to be coined in Tehran. A standard weight had to be fixed. Iiajji Muhammad Hassan, Amin ez- Zarb, late Mint-master to the Persian Government, and Mr. Rabino, chief manager of the Bank, after a series of experiments with the Mint and Bank weights, established the proportion between miscals and ounces troy as 250 miscals = 37 ounces troy, or 1 miscal = 71.04 grains. This has ever since been recognized as the equivalent of the miscal for bullion transactions."
"I must add that when the Customs Administration were preparing the New Com- mercial Convention they had no knowledge of this standard, having at the time no control over the Mint, and after weighing the heavy weights in use in their administration, they fixed the equivalent of the batman Tabrizi of 640 miscals as 2.97 kilogrammes. This equivalent is confirmed, so to say, by treaty. On taking charge of the Mint the Customs found an established standard weight for bullion, which they maintained."
"There is consequently now in Persia a legal weight for bullion, the miscal of 71.04 grains; and a legal weight for merchandise, the miscal of 71.61 grains."
The Miscal, also called Metsqal and Mitsqal, is a silver coin of Morocco, intro- duced by Muhammad Abd- Allah ben Ismail (A. II. 1171-1205). Its value is ten Dirhems. See Kesme.
In recent years the Chinese have struck in Turkestan bi-lingual silver coins of five, three, two, and one Miscals.
- Frey's Dictionary (American Journal of Numismatics, Vol. 50, 1916)