Zuyuf and the Cutting of Dirhams

Zuyuf (counterfeit coins) are dirhams that non-Arabs struck and adulterated. Al-Baladhuri presents reports of how the Companions and the governors dealt with them and with the clipping of coins. ¹

Ibn Mas'ud used to order them broken. He had some left in the treasury and sold it at a loss, and Umar forbade him. Umar and Uthman, when they found counterfeits in the treasury, melted them down into silver. ¹

Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz was brought a man who struck coins outside the sultan's die; he punished and imprisoned him, and threw his iron into the fire. Abd al-Malik seized a man who struck coins outside the Muslims' die, and he intended to cut off his hand, then left him and punished him, and the people of Medina praised his action. ¹

Marwan ibn al-Hakam cut off the hand of a man who was caught clipping coins; Zayd ibn Thabit said that he had punished him. Aban ibn Uthman, as governor of Medina, punished whoever clipped coins with thirty lashes and paraded him, and that was for those who clipped them and mixed in counterfeits. ¹

The jurists disagreed over clipping coins when they were full-weight. Malik and Ibn Abi Dhi'b disliked it and forbade it, because it is corruption. Al-Thawri and Abu Hanifa said there is no harm in it, so long as it does not harm Islam and its people. ¹

Al-Baladhuri transmits from Ibn Ka'b that he explained the saying of the people of Shu'ayb about disposing of their property as clipping coins. The place of the verse needs a further source.