Ottoman Silver Coins Struck In Tarabalus Gharb (Tripoli, Lib

These are beautiful coins...I really know nothing about Ottoman coinage, so it was fun to learn something here.

Hi - just wanted to add that I am in possession of a coin somewhat similar to the one pictured in "03.jpg" in the first post by Silver Gorilla. In fact, I've joined this forum as a result of my search to identify the coin. I obtained the coin when I purchased 20 uncleaned Roman coins from an ebay dealer and realized right away that it wasn't Roman after soaking and scrubbing it a bit. It is about 2.5 mm in diameter and thinner than a dime. It has been "holed" to be worn on a string and is pretty well-worn and tarnished in spots, making it difficult to read. On what I'm guessing is the obverse at about 2:00 is the design similar to ones I've seen in 03.jpg and elsewhere (which is what led me to believe that this coin is from Tripoli), the one that reminds me of two hearts superimposed over each other, and next to it is the larger object seen in the above coin that reminds me of a lobster with one oversized claw. Anyone know what these stylized objects are? On the other side (reverse?) is Arabic script and what appears to be a date at the bottom, luckily opposite of the bored hole. I cannot quite read the date at this time - may need to do a little more careful cleaning before I refer to Yeoman's "Modern World Coins" (I have Editions 4 and 5, which contain Arabic date charts).

Are there any other good sites besides those mentioned here on which I can do more research? Any suggestions? Is this little coin worth three figures as apparently are some of the others mentioned here? Do I possess a clever forgery that somehow got mixed with the Roman "cleaners" that I obtained? Just what do I have?

Thanks for the excellent information, Sap. I'll try to scan the coin and post it later, but as I said, it's worn and tarnished and may not scan well - not to mention the fact that my scanner doesn't do color images very well. This little piece of silver is turning into an education of the Ottoman Empire, an important part of history that I don't recall studying in school at all (not that I remember much from 50 years ago, lol).

The side with the toughra is normally considered the "obverse". The mint-name on yours is on the other side, and it's Constantinople, Turkey. Looks like a small silver para of the 18th century - something like this one on Zeno.ru which, as you can see, has been holed in similar fashion.