Turkey AH 1203(1) 10 para
This specimen was lot 2024 in Steve Album Auction 51 (Santa Rosa, CA, January 2025), where it sold for $180. The catalog description[1] noted, "TURKEY: Selim III, 1789-1807, AR onluk (10 para), Islambul, AH1203 year 11, a lovely choice mint-state example, PCGS graded MS64." Ottoman coins were dated using regnal years; the reverse bears the date AH 1203 (= 1789 A.D.) while the obverse bears the regnal year 1 (= 1789 A.D.). The Hejira calendar uses a lunar year instead of a solar year, so its starting date moves from year to year. This type was issued during years 1-19. After the reform of 1839, the kuruş was stabilized as a coin the size of a half dime. The ten paras, equal to one-quarter of a kuruş, was eventually converted to a copper coin. The SCWC mentions other ten paras for this date, KM 468 (3.2-3.5 g) and KM 450 (4.47 g), both very rare.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specifications: 2.4-3.5 g, 0.465 fine silver.
Catalog reference: KM-492.
- Michael, Thomas, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1701-1800, 7th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2016.
- [1]Album, Stephen, Joseph Lang, Paul Montz, Michael Barry and Norman Douglas Nicol, Auction 51, featuring the Howard Daniel III Collection of Asian Coins, the Almer H. Orr III Collection of World Coins and the Joe Sedillot Collection of German Coins, Santa Rosa, CA: Stephen Album Rare Coins, Inc., 2024.
- Uslu, Kaan, Beyazit, M. Fatih, and Kara, Tuncay, Ottoman Empire Coins, Istanbul: Mas Matbaacilik A.S., 2007.
Links: