A decorative Turkish coin

Turkey

(Turkey, shown on a globe, from Wikipedia).

Last time we looked at a Turkish coin, a 1960 5 Kuruş, we covered the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire after WW1, the renaming of the capital Constantinople to Istanbul in 1930, and the importance of the star and crescent to the country. We also acknowledged the country is now officially known as Türkiye, however we will continue to use Turkey, for coins prior to 2021. On this coin, as on the 1960 coin, the country name IS written as Türkiye.

Obverse

The obverse features Mustafa Kemal Atatürk facing left with the country name around the rim.

Atatürk

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938) was the founder and first president of the Turkish Republic. Born in 1881, he lost his father in 1888. By 1905, Mustafa Kemal graduated Military academy with the rank of captain. Instrumental in winning the Battle of Tobruk against the Italian forces in 1911, he was appointed to appointed to Derna Front as the Commander-in-Chief and greatly contributed to victories in the Balkan War of 1912.

When WWI started, he defended the Straits of Dardanelles against invading British and French navies, forcing them to land troops on the Gallipoli peninsula. Under his command, 19 Division halted the enemy forces who landed in Ariburnu, now called ANZAC cove and was promoted to full colonel.

(Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, c. 1916, from BBC history).

As an Australian, it is this part of Atatürk’s military service I am most familiar with. The Commonwealth of Australia was formed in 1901. The Gallipoli campaign was the first major battle for Australian soldiers. The Anzacs landed on Gallipoli and met fierce resistance from the Ottoman Turkish defenders. Their plan to knock Türkiye out of the war quickly became a stalemate and the campaign dragged on for eight months.  Although ultimately a failure, militarily, the soldiers from Australia and New Zealand (ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) drew respect from both their allies, and the Turkish.

Of the Anzacs, Atatürk said in 1934: “Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives … You are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore, rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours … You, the mothers who sent their sons from faraway countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well.”

Following Mustafa Kemal’s success at Gallipoli, he was promoted to Brigadier General, then Commander-in-Chief of the 7 Army in Aleppo, achieving the most successful defensive battles in history against the British. Following the Moudros Truce, as Inspector General of the 9 Army, he issued the Amasya Circular, declaring that the nation’s determination and decision will restore the nation’s independence and called for the gathering of Congress in Erzurum and Sivas. At this meeting, Mustafa Kemal was elected as the first Speaker of the House and the Head of the Government. A war of independence ensued between the National forces led by Mustafa Kemal, against the occupying forces, who each wanted to claim their own share of the defeated Ottoman empire. The Nationalist forces prevailed, and Mustafa Kemal was unanimously elected the first president of Turkey in 1923.

Atatürk made many reforms, including:

• Abolition of the Sultanate
• Granting women equal rights to men
• Adoption of the international calendar
• Judicial reforms
• Integration of education
• Adoption of the new Turkish alphabet
• Establishment of the Turkish language
• Construction of highways to reach every corner of the country

It was only in 1934, in accordance with the new surname law, he had instituted, the Turkish Grand National Assembly granted Mustafa Kemal with the surname Atatürk.

Atatürk died in 1938. He features on many Turkish coins, including every circulation coin from 1980. The last standard circulation coin to feature someone else was the 1979 50 Kurus, which featured an “Anatolic bride’s head facing left” – a woman wearing a traditional Turkish Anatolian headdress.

Conflicts between WWI and WWII

For those of us so far removed – 100 years later – it is easy to think that after the end of the first world war, things were pretty peaceful up until the start of WWII. In fact, as we’ve just seen, the peace process at the end of WWI, and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire left Turkey destabilised and conflict was likely almost inevitable. This eventuated initially with the triple entente of allied nations (Great Britain, France & Russia) who had fought against the Ottomans in WWI, but continued with regional neighbours, particularly Greece. Further, it was hardly the only conflict between the world wars. OnWar lists 67 conflicts in the 1920s. In Wikipedia’s category “1920s conflicts“, it lists 54 pages for 1920 alone. None to the scale of the world wars, but still each would have been quite tumultuous in its own arena. Estimates of casualties in the Turkish war of Independence and related Greco-Turkish war range into the hundreds of thousands. Indeed, in contrast, looking up “bloodless wars”, Wikipedia is the only site I readily found offering a list, and it only lists 14, in total. One of those was the Whiskey war between Denmark and Canada, which I’ve covered previously.

Reverse

The reverse features the Crescent and Star (National Emblem of Turkey), a Kufic calligraphic, and the value along with the date.

Kufic Calligraphy whose name is derived from Kufa, an early Islamic centre in Iraq, is a style of Arabic script closest to pictorial design. Kufic script is characterised by horizontal and vertical lines, and geometric shapes. Kufic is known as the script used for the first Qur’an, written on parchment in the 7^th – 8^th centuries. ArabicCalligraphy lists variations between scripts, and has some beautiful examples of Kufi.

(An interior view from the Zühtü Pasha Mosque Istanbul, shows its calligraphic decorations, designed by Krikor Köçeoğlu: Armenian Ottoman calligrapher of Kufic style. From DailySabah.com).

Every description of the 25 Kuruş coin I can find simply notes the existence of “a Kufic calligraphic” on the reverse. I can’t find anything to specifically note what the calligraphy reads. If you know, please do let me know so I can update this!

This variant of the 25 Kuruş coin was issued from 2009 – 2022. in 2023, a thinner (1.1mm instead of 1.5mm), lighter (2.7g, down from 4g) version of the coin was issued. Interestingly, Turkey also issue a gold 25 Kuruş coin (weighing 1.754g), which has even more decorative calligraphy:

Reverse of the 25 Kuruş Gold Bullion Coinage featuring decorative calligraphy. From Numista.

Having made several lines of inquiry, everything I can find indicates that the design on today’s coin is NOT calligraphy, but simply a beautiful pattern. There’s nothing wrong with that, I just wanted the description to be accurate. I have submitted an updated description to Numista. But, I still learnt about Cufic Calligraphy, so it was definitely a worthwhile exercise 🙂

What is your favourite decorative text on a coin? Do join in the conversation on social media and let us know!