History of Ottoman Coins
Vol 6
Dr. Atom Damali
Pages : 420 ( All in Colour)
Size: 210 x 297 mm
Hardcover
Language:English and Turkish
Ottoman Sultans
II. Suleiman - II. Ahmed - II. Mustafa - III. Ahmed - I. Mahmud
From the end
of the sixteenth century onwards, various administrative, military, industrial,
commercial, financial and social developments, which occurred within the
boundaries of the Ottoman state and throughout the world, were instrumental in
exacerbating the economic problems of the Ottoman Empire.
These
developments which greatly affected coin minting can be summarised briefly as
follows:
The silver
crisis that emerged due to the closure of the silver mines in the 17th century
in the Ottoman Empire was also a factor causing the collapse of the Ottoman
monetary system. The standards of the coins produced at the mints outside of
Istanbul started to degrade and the state was not able to inspect the fineness
and measures of the coins due to the weakness of the central authority.
The state
which could not control the mints under these difficult circumstances ended the
operations of many of them. While the number of mints producing coins had been
above 50 at the beginning of the century, as of the mid-17th century the number
of active mints came down to less than 10 as indicated in the list below.
The present
volume of this work, which is expected to be completed in nine volumes, covers
the reigns of sultans Mustafa I, Osman II, Murad IV, Ibrahim and Mehmed IV, and
contains:
·
Year-by-year chronological information regarding the 67 years of these
sultanates;
·
The most significant historical developments of this period;
·
Detailed information on coins.
This volume
includes the details of 28 coins of Sultan Suleyman II, 18 coins of Sultan
Ahmed II, 104 coins of Sultan Mustafa II, 346 coins of Sultan Ahmed III and 335
coins of Sultan Mahmud I; i.e. 831 gold and silver coins. Additionally, the
book provides the local history of nearly 50 provinces which issued coins
during these reigns and examines the characteristics of the coins minted in
these provinces.
An inventory of the coins belonging to the sultans is provided at the end of the book.