I recently cherrypicked this 1255/8 (1846) Ottoman Empire 20 Kurush large inscription on eBay. There are two varieties of this coin - small and large inscription - and the latter is scarcer and more valuable. Numista: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces30907.html. NGC: https://www.ngccoin.com/price-guide...-676-1255-15-1255-8-cuid-1100983-duid-1555124. Unfortunately, the coin is virtually a full half-gram underweight (23.53g). It is not magnetic and passes the ping test as silver, and we are talking about the Ottoman Empire in the mid-19th century, the "sick man of Europe." I'm willing to believe their minting processes were less than meticulous. The seller is reputable but not really a coin specialist. First and most importantly, is the coin genuine? I don't see any red flags other than the weight here - and the weak dentils, but the dentils are often weak on Ottoman coins, from what I've seen. Second, any ideas about the relative scarcity of this date and variety? Neither Numista nor NGC (from Krause) has any mintage information for this date. Thanks in advance for all reasonably informed opinions!
I consider myself by no means an Ottoman Empire expert. However, for whatever it's worth, a quick check of the Jem Sultan collection seems to show the example of the Abdel Majid large inscription 20 Kurush 1255/8 as weighing 24.15 grams. The other 20 Kurush coins of this type, years 15-23, seem to be listed as variously weighing between 23.58 to 24.08 grams.
Thanks! I hadn't thought of consulting that source. I'm looking for other examples online. @coin_nut posted on another thread about zeno.ru, and there is one example of this coin there, but unfortunately without a weight listed. However, there is something else that makes me think this might be genuine. There is a letter on the reverse that appears to be different on the 1255//8 with large letters compared to other Abdulmecid I 20K coins. First, my coin with the letter circled: Next, the same area on the zeno.ru example of the 1255//8 with large letters: Finally, that letter on another 20K (1255//6, small letters): This gives me some hope!
neither I am an expert, but maybe this helps. I do have 50 Kurush from this same sultan and when I was attributing it I found out that: There are two requirements for proclaiming being a Sultan, khutba and money issuance in the name of the Sultan. The first thing to be done is to make a tugra in his name. Tugra can be described as a signature of the Sultan and it was made unique for each Sultan. In a tugra, there are the name of the emperor, name of his father and a prayer: For example, Abdülmecid Han bin Mahmut, el muzaffer daima ( Abdülmecid son of Mahmut, be victorious forever). The objects like tugra were used on coins of the Ottoman era and subsequent period in places beyond the boundaries of the country (Crimea, Sudan, Afghanistan, Indian, Princeshipa). It is very easy to separate them since their details had never come close to the delicacy of the Ottoman tugras. If there is a very fine tugra it is most probably an Ottoman coin and yours is a very fine tugra. And a last note for tugra, the Turkish name tura (head / obverse) has been derived from the term tugra. Next phase is to determine the date and mint. Although there is no face value indication on the coins, they all have an issuance date. There are two different dating system in Ottoman coin Kostantiniye ( Costantinople), Misir (Egypt) and Baghdad, there is the date of the accession of the Sultan and either on the obverse or the reverse, the year of the reign when it was issued is shown. The date of the accession is accepted as the first year and is called as "cülüs" i.e. AH 1255/5 shows the 5th reign year of Sultan Abdülmecid. In order to determine the exact date you can do this simple calculation: 1255+5-1=1259. Special care is necessary for the coins issued in 1293, since in this year there were three Sultans: Abdulaziz, Murat V whose era started, and Abdulhamid. On your coin you have the tugra of Sultan Abdülmecid and the year on the reverse ١٢٥٥- Muslim Lunar (Hijra) [AH]1255 (1850) you need to find out which year x is below the tugra on the obverse, and replace it in this equation 1255 + x - 1= The "letter" you are asking about is part of the Arabic script, which is the same as on my coin: عز نصره ضرب في قسطنطينية ١٢٥٥ here you can see it:
Thank you for that detailed information, @cmezner. I did know about the tughra and how to read Arabic dates, although I admit I cannot read the Arabic script! I gave learning the Arabic alphabet a brief try some months ago and couldn't figure out the calligraphic versions found on coins. On the authenticity question, I found another interesting fact today. In the December 2011 Kuenker auction a 1255//8 large script 20 kurush coin was sold with a listed weight of... 23.2 grams. Well below even mine. So I think that establishes that the weight tolerances on these coins are in fact quite wide, and there is systematic variance across years and varieties.
Excellent conclusion @Ag76. Enjoy your acquisition, it is a beautiful coin To read more about Arabic coins you can download "Arabic Coins and how to read them" by Richard J. Plant at https://www.docdroid.net/069SHbh/16447.pdf
The item quoted is not actually a "letter" but is a diacritic mark. Diacritic marks are meant to show things such as missing vowels or consonant length, etc. They are usually not shown in everyday writing but are shown in the Quran. In this particular case, I think it is to indicate that the letter below is a "sh" sound rather than an "s" sound. Other nearby diacritic marks on the coin are what looks like a sideways "v" to the right and above this character and what looks like a Latin "w" below and to the left. And technically, the language is Turkish, which at that time used the same alphabet as Arabic. Under the instigation of Mustafa Kamal (Attaturk) to make the country more Western, the alphabet was replaced by a Latin based alphabet in 1928 and is how Turkish is written today on modern Turkish coins. @Ag76, it is a most interesting coin and a quite worthwhile find. Thanks for sharing it with us. Without being able to examine the coin in hand, I would conjecture that all indications so far say that it is authentic.
Thanks for the link; I am really fascinated with the Arabic-script, abstract-Islamic-design coins of the Morocco to Iran region. Many of them are extraordinarily beautiful.
Thank you for that explanation! So Arabic script has diacritic marks just like the Latin alphabet. I knew about the dots but not these others. I'll have to spend more time figuring out Arabic calligraphy. It can be quite impressive-looking!
