Turkey AH 1203(3) akce
This specimen was lot 2023 in Steve Album Auction 51 (Santa Rosa, CA, January 2025), where it sold for $72. The catalog description[1] noted, "TURKEY: Selim III, 1789-1807, AR akçe, Islambul, AH1203 year 3, a wonderful lustrous mint state example! PCGS graded MS64. Usual partial brockage or 'ghosting' error on the obverse due to the thin planchets used for this denomination." Ottoman coins were dated using regnal years; the reverse bears the date AH 1203 (= 1789 A.D.) while the obverse bears the regnal year 3 (= 1790 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 1-9. After the reform of 1839, the kuruş was stabilized as a coin the size of a half dime. The akçe, equal to one-third of a para, was dropped as too small to be useful. The SCWC mentions another akçe for this date, KM 441 (0.16 g, with a different toughra), as quite scarce.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specifications: 0.10 g, 0.465 fine silver.
Catalog reference: KM-483.
- 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.
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