Dinar – Fez Branch of Saadi dynasty

In 1614, the Fez branch of the Saadi dynasty, ruling the northern half of a fractured Morocco, faced a complex and challenging currency situation. The dynasty’s authority and economic stability had been severely undermined following the death of Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur in 1603, which plunged the realm into a protracted civil war between his sons. The Fez-based Sultan Zaydan al-Nasir, while controlling a vital commercial and intellectual capital, struggled against his rivals in Marrakesh and various regional warlords. This political fragmentation directly crippled the unified monetary system that al-Mansur had previously maintained, leading to inconsistent minting, debasement, and a loss of confidence in the state's currency.

The primary currency was the silver dirham, but its weight and purity varied significantly between mints in Fez, Marrakesh, and other towns held by competing factions. Furthermore, the lucrative trans-Saharan gold trade, which had once supplied the gold for prestigious dinar coinage under al-Mansur, was disrupted by internal strife and external pressures from the Songhai Empire's collapse. This resulted in a scarcity of gold coinage, forcing a greater reliance on silver and copper fulus for everyday transactions. The economy also relied heavily on a mix of older, trusted coins from the preceding Wattasid period and foreign currencies, particularly Spanish reales and Ottoman coins, which circulated widely due to Fez’s ongoing trade with Europe and the Ottoman Empire.

Consequently, Sultan Zaydan’s administration in Fez grappled with the dual problem of asserting monetary sovereignty while funding military campaigns. Minting coins was a crucial declaration of legitimacy, but debasement—reducing the silver content—was often a tempting short-term solution to finance the ongoing war. This practice further eroded public trust, encouraged hoarding of good coin, and created price inflation, particularly for basic goods. Thus, the currency situation in Fez in 1614 was a direct reflection of a splintered polity: a chaotic blend of competing issues, foreign coins, and debased currency that hampered economic recovery and underscored the Saadi dynasty's diminished power in the north.