50 Kuruş - Mehmed V Constantinople

Issued under Mehmed V Reşad during the Ottoman entry into World War I as a German ally, these gold kuruş pieces were struck at the Constantinople mint while the empire was hemorrhaging territory and treasury simultaneously. The Dardanelles campaign of 1915 and the grinding Caucasus front consumed resources at a rate the Ottoman financial system could not sustain, making gold coinage increasingly a store of value rather than a circulating medium.

KM#775 shares its specification with earlier Reşad-era issues, a continuity that masked the deepening fiscal crisis. By 1918 the empire had effectively collapsed as a monetary unit.