5 Qirsh - Abdullah borders of crescents only

Sudan's Mahdist state issued coinage intermittently through the 1880s and 1890s under the theocratic government established after Muhammad Ahmad's forces took Khartoum in 1885. This piece dates to the reign of the Khalifa Abdallahi, who ruled after the Mahdi's death and maintained the state until Kitchener's forces destroyed it at Omdurman in 1898. Mahdist coinage is notoriously irregular in fabric — planchets were locally prepared, often from melted earlier issues, and striking quality varies dramatically even within a single die pairing.

The "borders of crescents only" distinction separates this from related types and reflects genuine die variation in the series, not a grading artifact.