Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1/2 Sultani - Abdulhamid I
| Issuer | Tunisia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1774-1775 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Rial (1567-1891) |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Central field bears the imperial tughra-style inscription of Sultan Abdulhamid I rendered in four horizontal lines of Arabic script, enclosed within a plain inner circle surrounded by a beaded border. The legend reads the full Ottoman royal titulature identifying the sultan as ruler of the two lands and two seas. The script is boldly struck in the Ottoman hammered tradition, with slightly irregular flan typical of Tunisian provincial gold coinage of the period. A small hole pierced at the top of the flan indicates later use as a pendant. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Arabic |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Tunisia in the 1770s operated as a nominally Ottoman province under the Husainid beys, who exercised near-total administrative autonomy while still striking coinage in the name of the reigning sultan in Istanbul. This fractional gold piece was issued during Abdulhamid I's early reign, shortly after he came to power in 1774 following the death of Mustafa III. The Husainid bey at the time, Ali II ibn Hussein, had consolidated Tunis against ongoing Algerian pressure — the same decade had seen a brief Algerian occupation of the city in 1756.
At roughly 1.28 g, Tunisian fractional gold of this type circulated in a market where Ottoman, French, and Venetian coinage all competed for acceptance in Mediterranean trade.