Beslik - Mahmud II Kostantiniyye mint

The beslik — a five-para piece — was among the debased fractional coinages grinding through Ottoman markets during Mahmud II's aggressive but financially strained modernization drive. By the early 1830s, the empire was hemorrhaging silver to pay for the Nizam-ı Cedid's successor armies and had just survived the Greek War of Independence, which drained both treasury reserves and political credibility. The billon content reflects that pressure directly.

Kostantiniyye mint output for this type ran only across the single regnal year 1248 AH.