Selim III introduced the onluk as part of his broader Nizam-ı Cedid monetary reforms, an attempt to rationalize an Ottoman coinage system that had been debased so aggressively over the preceding century that public confidence in billon issues was nearly nonexistent. The Islambol mint — the Ottoman rendering of Istanbul used on official coinage — struck these throughout a reign defined by Selim's ultimately fatal ambition to modernize the empire along European lines.
He was deposed in 1807 and strangled the following year on orders of Mustafa IV, which hard-stops the type's production window in a way the date range alone doesn't convey.
Selim III introduced the onluk as part of his broader Nizam-ı Cedid monetary reforms, an attempt to rationalize an Ottoman coinage system that had been debased so aggressively over the preceding century that public confidence in billon issues was nearly nonexistent. The Islambol mint — the Ottoman rendering of Istanbul used on official coinage — struck these throughout a reign defined by Selim's ultimately fatal ambition to modernize the empire along European lines.
He was deposed in 1807 and strangled the following year on orders of Mustafa IV, which hard-stops the type's production window in a way the date range alone doesn't convey.