20 Lira Danishmendids

The Danishmendids were a Turkic dynasty that controlled much of Anatolia from roughly 1071 to 1178, operating in direct competition — and frequent conflict — with both the Seljuks and the Crusader states. Their court at Sivas and Niksar produced a notable tradition of Arabic-script coinage at a time when dynastic identity in Anatolia was still being contested metal by metal. This 2019 issue is part of Turkey's long-running commemorative series celebrating pre-Ottoman Anatolian beyliks and dynasties, a program that began accelerating under the Darphane's expanded collector output in the 2010s.

The Danishmendid ruler Ghazi Gümüştegin famously captured Bohemond I of Antioch in 1101 and held him for three years — one of the more embarrassing reversals suffered by the First Crusade's veterans.