collar, cross, slave, Umayyad
The reverse of the Standing Caliph fals struck under ‘Abd al-Malik (685-705) normally depicted an object consisting of a pole on steps crossed by an ellipse or circle. Several different interpretations of this device have been offered to date, perhaps the most popular being that the pole has been transformed into the Greek letter phi in abbreviation of the name of this denomination coin, a ϕόλλις in Greek or fals in Arabic. It is argued here that the apparent ellipse or circle represents a slave-collar and that it has been set upon a cross that has been disfigured by the removal of its horizontal bar in order to emphasize that the Christian community within the caliphate had been subjected in the manner of slaves.