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Cyprus
came under Ottoman rule in 1570AD and remained part of the Empire
until 1878. Although Murad III ordered the building a mint on the
island in 1579, it is not evident that he minted any coins in
there. Only coins struck by Mehmed III, Ahmed I and Murad IV have
so far been found with the Cyprus mint name on them. The Cyprus
mint seems to have been in operation between 1595 and 1640.
 Two
silver denominations, the akches and a somewhat larger coin are
known from the Cyprus mint. We will focus on the akche in this
article and leave the other denomination for a future article.
KIBRIS,
the name of the island in Turkish, is spelt with the Arabic
letters QBRS (qaf-ba-ra-sin). All varieties of Akches
from KIBRIS have counterparts from many other Ottoman mints and
are distinguishable only by the mint name. The appearance of the
mint name, therefore, is an essential element for the
identification on KIBRIS struck Akches.
As
usual, the KIBRIS akches have inscriptions only, in Arabic. They
can be classified as either a circular type or a linear type
according to the arrangement of the obverse legend. The reverse
legend is always in the linear arrangement. A dot can be found in
the geometrical center of the double border on both sides unless
obliterated by other parts of the legend. The diameter of the
outer border (dotted border) is 11 mm, and that of the line
border is 10 mm. The actual coins are around 9-11 mm in size but
many coins are irregular in shape, off-center and badly struck.
The average weight of the KIBRIS Akche is around 0.3g.
The
obverse legend shows the name of the ruler (X) as Sultan and the
name of his dead father (Y) as Han: Sultan X bin Y Han.
In the circular type the ruler's name is in the center and Sultan bin Y Han forms the circle around the name. In the
linear type the legend is in three horizontal lines: Sultan / X
bin / Y Han.
The
reverse legend is invariably in four horizontal lines: 'azze
nasruhu / duribe / KIBRIS / accession year of the ruler;
that is, "may his victory be glorious, minted [in] Cyprus" and the
accession year AH.
All
varieties of the Cyprus akches are listed below. The sequence is
in the most probable chronological order, the exact dates of the
issues within the same reign are unknown. The chart helps to
observe the differences. The circle represents the line border of
the stamp, not the edge of the coin; this was surrounded by
another border of dots. The full image is rarely visible on the
actual pieces. |
