1 Piastre - George V

Cyprus passed from Ottoman suzerainty to formal British annexation in 1914, the moment the Ottoman Empire entered the war on the German side. The piastre coinage that followed inherited a denomination structure rooted in the old Ottoman monetary system, which Britain retained largely to avoid disrupting an already restive colonial economy. George V issues of this type were struck at the King's Norton Mint in Birmingham, not at the Royal Mint itself.

The 1931 date on this type is particularly loaded: that year saw the Cypriot revolt against British rule, after which the colonial government suspended the legislative council entirely.