Catalog
5 Qirsh - Abdulmecid I
| Issuer | Egypt |
|---|---|
| Year | 1839 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | The elaborate calligraphic tughra of Sultan Abdulmecid I occupies the central field, rendered in fine relief with characteristic interlocking loops and vertical shafts. A decorative floral sprig appears to the right of the tughra. The Arabic numeral denomination '٥' (5) is inscribed below the tughra in the lower field. The coin is encircled by a milled or beaded border following the coin's rim. |
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| Mintage | 1255 (1839) - ١ (Regnal year 1, minted in 1839-1840) - 1255 (1839) - ١٦ (Regnal year 16, minted in 1853-1854) - 1255 (1839) - ٢ (Regnal year 2, minted in 1840-1841) - 1255 (1839) - ٢٣ (Regnal year 23, minted in 1860-1861) - 1255 (1839) - ٣ (Regnal year 3, minted in 1841-1842) - 1255 (1839) - ٤ (Regnal year 4, minted in 1842-1843) - 1255 (1839) - ٥ (Regnal year 5, minted in 1843-1844) - 1255 (1839) - ٦ (Regnal year 6, minted in 1844-1845) - |
| Additional information |
Abdülmecid I ascended the Ottoman throne in July 1839 at sixteen years old, within weeks of his father Mahmud II's death and amid a catastrophic military defeat at Nizip that left the empire's future genuinely uncertain. Egyptian coinage of this moment carries that instability: the autonomous province under Mehmed Ali had just crushed Ottoman forces, and it was European diplomatic intervention — not military recovery — that preserved the empire's nominal authority over Egypt. This coin belongs to that uneasy interval before the 1840 Convention of London forced Mehmed Ali's hand.
The .833 fineness was a deliberate step down from earlier Ottoman silver standards, part of broader fiscal adjustments that would accelerate through Abdülmecid's reign.