Egypt 1920-H 5 piastres
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). Denominations were now 'millemes' and 'piastres' instead of qirshes and fractional qirshes, and for the first time, english lettering and numbers appeared on Egyptian coins. Upon the death of Hussein Kamel in 1917, his younger brother Fuad I took the throne. The only change to the coinage under the new sultan were an elimination of the wreath on both obverse and reverse. No copper or copper-nickel fractionals were issued for this period, and the piastres of all denominations are relatively rare.
The coin shown is a five piastres from the time of Fuad I, under British protectorate. The obverse displays the name of Sultan Fuad I, with the ascension date 1335 (1917 AD) at the base. The reverse has the denomination in both Arabic and English (it is noteworthy that the Arabic denomination still translates as 'qirsh'). The year of strike is shown in both Hijra and Gregorian dates. The mintmark for the Heaton Mint, England (H) appears at base of reverse.
Recorded mintage: 1,000,000.
Specifications: 7 g, 0.833 fine silver.
Catalog reference: KM 326.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1901-2000, 47th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
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