Egypt 1917-KN 10 milliemes
At the beginning of World War I, the Ottoman Empire allied itself with Germany. In order to assure the use of the Suez canal and other strategic interests, the British formally occupied Egypt and installed a pliant ruler (Sultan Hussein Kamel). Thus the issuance of Ottoman-style coinage ended and a new phase began. Denominations were now 'milliemes' and 'piastres' instead of qirshes and fractional qirshes, and for the first time, English lettering and numbers appeared on Egyptian coins. The coin shown is a ten milliemes from the time of British occupation of Egypt. The obverse displays the name of Sultan Hussein Kamel, with the ascension date 1333 (1914 AD) at the base and the year of strike (AH 1335 and 1917 AD) split alongside the hole. The reverse has the denomination in both Arabic and English. The mintmark for the King's Norton Mint in England (KN) appears below the word MILLIEMES.
Recorded mintage: 4,000,000.
Specification: 6 g, copper-nickel, 26 mm diameter.
Catalog reference: KM 316.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1901-2000, 47th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- Uslu, Kaan, Beyazit, M. Fatih, and Kara, Tuncay, Ottoman Empire Coins, Istanbul: Mas Matbaacilik A.S., 2007.
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