Egypt 1/10, 2/10, and 5/10 Qirsh 1876 to 1909

The old coins from Egypt, when the Ottomans (Turks) ruled, are quite fascinating. It would be interesting and fun to build a complete collection of these coins. The tughra or toughra on one side is a calligraphic monogram, seal or signature of the Ottoman sultan. It was affixed to all official documents and correspondence, and stamped on coins during his reign.

The accession date, the year the sultan started his reign, appears on all his coins. In this case the accession date is 1293, plainly seen in eastern Arabic numerals. The regnal year, or the year of reign when the coin was minted, shows in Arabic on the other side, 27 in this case.

iVan has a coin with Muslim date accession: 1293, regnal: 29, which is equivalent to Gregorian date 1903. You can go to IslamicFinder.org to convert between Muslim and Gregorian dates. Muslim dates are called Hijri dates and start around the time Mohammed was alive (600 AD) and use a lunar year with 354 days, so converting between AH (Hijri) dates and AD dates takes a little work.



Coins with tughra patterns and accession/regnal dates were minted in gold, silver, copper-nickel, and bronze. This page applies to copper-nickel coins with the tenth denomination shown in Arabic on the side opposite the tughra. The specific denominations are 1/10, 2/10, and 5/10 qirsh; one-tenth qirsh appears in our picture.



We list below some typical catalog values for the copper-nickel tenth coins of Abdul Hamid II. As usual, these are catalog values and must be converted to actual buy and sell values (which are lower) using our Important Terminology page.

ONE-TENTH QIRSH:
worn: less than $1 US dollar approximate catalog value
average circulated: $3
well preserved: $6
fully uncirculated: $12
one-tenth coins with regnal years 18 and 22 are more rare and worth about four time these values

TWO-TENTH QIRSH:
worn: less than $1 US dollar approximate catalog value
average circulated: $5
well preserved: $12
fully uncirculated: $20
two-tenth coins with regnal year 20 are more rare and worth about three times these values
two-tenth coins with regnal years 30 and 35 are more rare and worth about twice these values

FIVE-TENTH QIRSH:
worn: less than $1 US dollar approximate catalog value
average circulated: $5
well preserved: $12
fully uncirculated: $20
five-tenth coins with regnal year 29 are quite common and worth about one-half these values
five-tenth coins with regnal years 20, 23, and 33 are more rare and worth about twice these values
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