2 Zeri Mahbub - Mahmud I Pattern

Mahmud I's reign saw Ottoman Egypt operating under an increasingly assertive local bey class, and pattern issues from this period often reflect attempts by Cairo's mint administrators to propose revised weight or module standards without Istanbul's direct initiation. The 2 Zeri Mahbub denomination itself only became a regularized issue later in the 18th century, which places this 1731 pattern in a particularly ambiguous administrative moment — likely produced to test a proposed tariffed gold piece against the foreign coins dominating Egyptian trade at the time.