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The fals (Arabic: فلس, romanized: fals, plural fulus) was a medieval copper coin first produced by the Umayyad caliphate (661–750) beginning in the late 7th century. The name of the coin is derived from the follis, a Roman and later Byzantine copper coin.[1] The fals usually featured ornate Arabic script on both sides. Various copper fals were produced until the 19th century. Their weight varied, from one gram to ten grams or more.
The term is still used in modern spoken Arabic for money, but pronounced 'fils'.[2] The plural form fulus فلوس is used in contemporary dialects of Arabic (e.g. Egyptian, Iraqi) as a general term for "money". The French term flouze is borrowed from Arabic. It is also absorbed into Malay language through the word fulus فولوس.[3]
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- The Malay derivant fulus was used as basis for naming the fictional setting of Metrofulus in the 2006 Malaysian superhero film Cicakman.
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