2,5 Lira Hamidiye Battle Cruiser

The Hamidiye was an Ottoman protected cruiser that became a national icon during the First Balkan War of 1912–13, when Captain Hüseyin Rauf Orbay conducted a series of audacious solo raids against Greek ports — Syros, Thessaloniki, Çeşme — that kept the ship legendary in Turkish public memory long after the empire itself collapsed. The vessel survived both Balkan Wars and World War I before being retired in 1947, an unusually long operational life for a warship of her generation.

This 2015 commemorative is part of Darphane's ongoing series honoring Ottoman naval history.