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1 Piastre - Victoria
| Issuer | Cyprus |
|---|---|
| Year | 1879-1900 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Diademed and draped bust of Queen Victoria facing left, her hair swept back and gathered in a chignon adorned with a jewelled diadem. The effigy, engraved by Leonard Charles Wyon, displays fine portrait detail characteristic of the Victorian bun-head type. The legend VICTORIA is inscribed along the left arc of the field, with QUEEN continuing along the right arc. The date appears in the lower exergual area below the truncation. A continuous beaded border surrounds the design. |
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| Obverse lettering | VICTORIA QUEEN 1887 |
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| Additional information |
Cyprus came under British administration in 1878 following the Cyprus Convention, by which the Ottoman Empire ceded control to Britain in exchange for defensive guarantees against Russia. The island was not formally annexed — it remained nominally Ottoman territory paying tribute to Constantinople — which created an administratively awkward arrangement that persisted until Britain annexed Cyprus outright at the outbreak of WWI in 1914. The piastre coinage issued during Victoria's reign reflected that ambiguity: British in execution, hybrid in political reality.
KM#3 is known with both a heaton mint privy mark and without, the Birmingham Mint having struck the majority of the series.