10 Kuruş FAO

Issued as part of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's global coin program, which ran from the late 1960s through the 1980s and enlisted dozens of central banks to mint agricultural-themed pieces intended to raise awareness of food security. Turkey's participation came during one of its most turbulent decades — the late 1970s saw severe economic instability, political violence, and a balance-of-payments crisis that preceded the September 1980 military coup, which occurred the same year this coin was struck.

The FAO program required no standardized approach; each issuing country designed its own piece, making Turkey's entry one of roughly 150 distinct national issues from the program's peak years.