Catalog
Para Selim III, French occupation
| Issuer | Egypt |
|---|---|
| Year | 1789 |
| Type | Standard circulation coin |
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| Obverse description | Central field dominated by the elaborate calligraphic tughra (imperial monogram) of Sultan Selim III, rendered in the traditional Ottoman style with sweeping loops and vertical shafts rising above the horizontal baseline. The tughra occupies the majority of the flan, with subsidiary Arabic inscriptions flanking the monogram in the lower field. The strike is characteristic of hammered billon coinage, resulting in an irregular, slightly off-center impression on the roughly circular planchet. |
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| Reverse description | Arabic inscriptions filling the field, recording the mint name Misr (Egypt), the Hijri regnal year, and the accession year 1203 AH. The legends are arranged in multiple lines across the flan in a manner typical of late Ottoman provincial hammered coinage, with the regnal year numeral (١٣ or ١٤) prominently positioned. The overall strike is weak in areas, consistent with the low-denomination billon issues of this period produced under difficult wartime conditions during the French occupation. |
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| Additional information |
Egypt was nominally under Ottoman suzerainty when this piece was struck, but French forces under Napoleon occupied the country from 1798 to 1801 — which is why "French occupation" attaches to coins of Selim III's reign. The French did not remint Egyptian coinage; they allowed existing Ottoman-type issues to continue circulating, making this para one of the coins that passed through an economy simultaneously subject to Ottoman monetary authority and Napoleonic military administration.