Cyprus came under British administration in 1878 as part of a convention with the Ottoman Empire, though it remained nominally Ottoman territory until 1914 — meaning Edward VII coins struck for the island carried the authority of a king administering land he did not technically own. The piastre denominations continued a currency system inherited directly from Ottoman circulation, retaining the name rather than converting to a purely British framework.
The 1908 date places this among the final issues of the Edward VII Cyprus series, which ran only from 1902 until his death in 1910.
Cyprus came under British administration in 1878 as part of a convention with the Ottoman Empire, though it remained nominally Ottoman territory until 1914 — meaning Edward VII coins struck for the island carried the authority of a king administering land he did not technically own. The piastre denominations continued a currency system inherited directly from Ottoman circulation, retaining the name rather than converting to a purely British framework.
The 1908 date places this among the final issues of the Edward VII Cyprus series, which ran only from 1902 until his death in 1910.