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 Replies: 17 / Views: 2,468 |
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Valued Member
United States
154 Posts |
As mentioned in my "new member introduction" post, I'm not a serious coin collector anymore. If I happen to find, or be given, a "collectible" coin (i.e., any coin that I can't or wouldn't spend because it's foreign and/or old), I'll hold onto it. Of course I don't come across much except the occasional old U.S. coin or a common, recent coin from some other, not-too-distant country. Last week I was walking by a "Coinstar"-type machine at the grocery store, and I noticed a couple of coins in the "reject" slot. One was just a very dirty dime. The other was a tiny coin with only Arabic writing on it. It had a familiar look to it but I couldn't place it right away. I figured it was just a recent coin from the Middle East somewhere, probably some country already represented in my collection. After some research, though, I found it was a little more unusual, and a lot older, than I thought: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces5194.htmlOttoman Empire - 5 Para - 1327 AH (The web page says the Gregorian date would be "1910-1915," but I believe the correct date would actually be 1909.) Not exactly a major treasure, but not the kind of thing you're going to find on the street every day either. It's not in bad shape -- i.e., not much worse than the coin pictured on the web page -- which is partially why I thought it was a more recent coin. A couple of odd things I've noticed about it: It's made of nickel, and yet it sticks to a magnet. I did a little research, though, and found that this is to be expected. The positioning of the obverse vs. the reverse is a bit strange as well. If you have the obverse right-side up and then turn the coin straight over to the left or right, the reverse will end up slightly tilted to the right. Are some old foreign coins just kind of random like this? BTW, last year I found a 1918 Mercury dime in the same change machine's "reject" slot, but it's in "worse than poor" condition.  Edited by SquareCircle
05/16/2023 09:56 am
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Moderator
 United States
56855 Posts |
 Nice finds. John1  |
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Bedrock of the Community
United States
94367 Posts |
to the CCF! |
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Moderator
United States
187862 Posts |
Very nice!  to the Community! Your post was moved to the appropriate forum for the proper attention.  |
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Valued Member
 United States
154 Posts |
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Your post was moved to the appropriate forum for the proper attention. Thanks, I wasn't sure where to put it. Even if I'd seen the "Coin Roll Hunting" forum I wouldn't have known that this belonged there. |
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Moderator
United States
187862 Posts |
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Valued Member
United States
154 Posts |
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In case you missed it, we have an ongoing topic of finds... 326 pages and counting? Yikes! |
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Moderator
United States
187862 Posts |
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326 pages and counting? Yikes! Yeah, but you can bookmark it for a rainy day. And if that seems like a lot, you might want to look away from this CRH topic...  http://goccf.com/t/22710 |
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Valued Member
United States
238 Posts |
To answer your question about obverse and reverse not aligning I would call it rotated dies - are they common on world coins? The answer is - depends! For the piece you have I would say it is not rare if it is 10-20 degrees off, but more than that makes it interesting to me!
The more modern they get the rarer to find imo
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Valued Member
United States
154 Posts |
Edited by SquareCircle
05/17/2023 07:35 am
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Valued Member
United States
238 Posts |
I don't think 10 degrees is enough to bring any extra value for this one but it is interesting and I would note it on my holder if I owned it. And I am no expert :D
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Moderator
Australia
16809 Posts |
Just a final note on the date of your coin. "1327" (AD 1909) isn't the year the coin was struck. This is the accession year of the Sultan whose name appears on the coin. To find the actual year in which the coin was struck, you will need to find the "regnal date" numerals on your coin, and then do some math. For example, on the coin shown on the Numista page you've linked to, the regnal year is "2" (the small numeral is, in this case, just beneath the toughra), so the actual year of issue is 1327 + 2 - 1 = AH 1328, or AD 1910.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Pillar of the Community
United States
2281 Posts |
I clicked for pictures!
You realize when you know how to think, it empowers you far beyond those who know only what to think.
-Neil deGrasse Tyson
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3641 Posts |
That's quite an unusual find, congrats! |
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Valued Member
United States
154 Posts |
Quote:
"1327" (AD 1909) isn't the year the coin was struck. This is the accession year of the Sultan whose name appears on the coin. To find the actual year in which the coin was struck, you will need to find the "regnal date" numerals on your coin, and then do some math. For example, on the coin shown on the Numista page you've linked to, the regnal year is "2" (the small numeral is, in this case, just beneath the toughra), so the actual year of issue is 1327 + 2 - 1 = AH 1328, or AD 1910. Ah, thank you. I knew I was missing something, and that was it. My coin has a "5", so that would be a date of 1913. P.S.: "Toughra" (or "tughra") is officially the latest new word I've learned. I had to look up how to pronounce it ("TOO-gra"). Edited by SquareCircle
05/18/2023 09:24 am
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Valued Member
United States
154 Posts |
I've been meaning to share a picture of the coin. This is the best I could get (using my scanner):  Additional thoughts: - I hope I never have to explain to a non-collector how the date of this coin had to be determined. I can just imagine the eyes glazing over... - I have found that neither "toughra" nor the alternate spelling "tughra" is a valid word in Words With Friends (i.e., online Scrabble). I think that is an unwarranted omission! Edited by SquareCircle
07/20/2023 12:15 pm
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Replies: 17 / Views: 2,468 |
Posted 05/16/2023 09:27 am
