Mehmed VI, the last reigning sultan of the Ottoman Empire, came to power in July 1918 with the war already lost. These gold kuruş issues were struck under an administration that would survive less than four years before Atatürk's nationalist government abolished the sultanate in November 1922. Mehmed fled aboard a British warship, never to return.
The regnal year sequence on pieces from this brief window places them among the final gold coinage of any Ottoman sultan — minted by an imperial mint that would itself be reorganized out of existence within the decade.
Mehmed VI, the last reigning sultan of the Ottoman Empire, came to power in July 1918 with the war already lost. These gold kuruş issues were struck under an administration that would survive less than four years before Atatürk's nationalist government abolished the sultanate in November 1922. Mehmed fled aboard a British warship, never to return.
The regnal year sequence on pieces from this brief window places them among the final gold coinage of any Ottoman sultan — minted by an imperial mint that would itself be reorganized out of existence within the decade.