Scholars of Islamic numismatics have studied coinage to understand not only the political and economic milieu of historical events but also as a means of expression by their issuing authorities. This paper intends to explore the agency of Fatimid gold coins in the visual construction of authority, ideology and identity through a manner which I venture to call “The Art of Ostentation”. The study attempts to identify the ideological as well as political choices, as expressed in coins, taken by the Musta’lian Tayyibi line of Fatimid Imam-Caliphs (from the advent of the dynasty in 297 AH/909 AD to the death of Manṣūr al-Āmir bi'Aḥkāmi’l-Lāh in 524 AH/1130 AD) in order to convey messages about religious identity, caliphal legitimacy and spiritual authority. Using the collection of Fatimid coins from private collections as well as Norman Nicole’s A Corpus of Fatimid Coins, three aspects of Fatimid coins are closely examined: inscriptions, design, and materiality. An interpretive approach is employed to show how a Sunni and Shi’a theological confrontation played out through objects in circulation by comparing Fatimid and Abbasid coins. The unique contribution of the study will be an examination how the spirit of ostentation endures today through the religio-cultural practices of the Dawoodi Bohra community—who draw their spiritual and cultural roots to the Fatimids—through the minting and dissemination of commemorative coinage to not only mark and honour special religious occasions but further serve as a symbol of their distinct Fatimid identity. The research presented contributes to a larger discussion regarding how to read Fatimid material sources to glean insights about ideological representations, particularly how objects, in relation to the intentions of their makers, were and continue to be received by both figures of authority and the public at large.