2 Qirsh - Abdullah

The Mahdist State issued coinage not as a practical monetary instrument but as a declaration of theological authority — the coins bore religious inscriptions asserting the Mahdi's divine mission, making them ideological objects as much as anything else. Abdullah ibn Muhammad, who assumed leadership after the Mahdi's death in 1885, continued striking billon issues from Omdurman under increasingly difficult conditions as the Anglo-Egyptian reconquest tightened its grip on the region. The minting infrastructure was crude, and planchet quality varied wildly.

KM#18 was struck just four years before Kitchener's forces destroyed Omdurman at the Battle of Karari in 1898, ending the state entirely.