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TURKEY: Mahmud I, 1730-1754, AR kurush (26.49g), Gümüshane, AH1143

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:1,800.00 USD Estimated At:2,500.00 - 3,000.00 USD
TURKEY: Mahmud I, 1730-1754, AR kurush (26.49g), Gümüshane, AH1143
SOLD
1,800.00USD+ buyer's premium + applicable fees & taxes.
This item SOLD at 2010 Dec 11 @ 10:46UTC-8 : PST/AKDT
Opening bids do not reflect absentee book bids that have been received.
TURKEY: Mahmud I, 1730-1754, AR kurush (26.49g), Gümüshane, AH1143, KM-212. NP-568, initial #10, lovely strike with virtually no weakness at all, the nicest I have seen, choice Very Fine, RR. Gümüshane, "the silver camp", was a silver mining town now on the highway between Erzurum and Trabzon. It was only active as an Ottoman mint during the reign of Mahmud I.In 1965 I (Steve) was taking the bus from Erzurum to Trabzon, en route to the Iranian consulate. We stopped for lunch at Gümüshane, where I walked across the road to a tobacco shop for a pack of cigarettes (fortunately, I quit smoking in 1969). On the wall were two full kurush and one ½ kurush nailed to the wall, of which I purchased the half and one of the full kurush coins, each with a nail hole. They were very cheap, but in those days hardly anyone cared whether the mint name was Gümüshane or Kostantiniye. I doubt the pair, with or without holes, was worth more than $20 or $30 back then.