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40 Para - Selim III 1 Qirsh
| Issuer | Ottoman Empire (Egypt) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1789 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | 11 g |
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| Obverse description | Central field dominated by the elaborate tughra of Sultan Selim III, rendered in the characteristic calligraphic style of late 18th-century Ottoman coinage, with sweeping loops and ascending strokes. A six-pointed star or rosette device appears to the upper left of the tughra, while a sprig or floral ornament is visible to the right. The coin is struck on a broad flan with an irregular border of raised beads encircling the entire design. The surface shows the typical characteristics of hammered billon coinage produced at the Misr mint. |
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| Reverse script | Arabic |
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| Additional information |
Selim III's accession in 1789 coincided almost exactly with the outbreak of the French Revolution, and his reign would prove equally turbulent. The Egyptian mint at Misr struck this billon qirsh under the reformed monetary system Selim attempted to impose across Ottoman provincial coinage — an effort to standardize a currency system that had fragmented badly across the empire's far-flung mints. Egypt's issues were notoriously inconsistent in silver content even within a single reign, and billon rather than fine silver reflects the fiscal pressures already straining the treasury before Napoleon's 1798 invasion made the situation catastrophic.