25 Kurus - Abdülhamid II Constantinople

Abdülhamid II's accession in 1876 coincided almost immediately with the catastrophic Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78, which stripped the empire of roughly one-third of its remaining European territory and left the treasury effectively bankrupt. The smaller gold denominations issued across his first regnal years circulated against a backdrop of suspended debt payments and the empire's formal default to European creditors in 1876 — the same year this type was introduced.

The regnal year on these pieces follows the Ottoman accession-year dating system, so examples from the early emission years are generally scarcer than later dates in the run.