1 Pound Cyprus Green Turtle

The green turtle (Chelonia mydas) nesting population at Alagadi beach in northern Cyprus is one of the last significant Mediterranean breeding colonies, and by 1997 it had become a focal point of conservation conflict — the beaches fell under Turkish Cypriot administration following the 1974 division, complicating any coordinated protection effort across the island. The Society for the Protection of Turtles had been operating there since the late 1980s under difficult political circumstances.

KM#72 was issued as part of Cyprus's wildlife conservation series in the final years before euro adoption rendered the pound obsolete.