EGYPT 10 qirsh 1917

Description

Egypt in the 19th century was formally part of the Ottoman Empire but was functionally independent in most ways. The British overthrew the Khedive (local Ottoman boss) and replaced him with his brother, Hussein Kamil, who declared Egypt independent of the Ottomans, and quickly became a British protectorate.

Egypt is, famously, where one of the three oldest literate cultures emerged. The other two places are Iraq and China. Coins go back to the last Pharao, just before the arrival of Alexander the Great. There is a continuous tradition of coinage from then until now. For purposes of this website, modern Egypt starts with the Ottoman conquest of the 16th century.

“Middle East” is, generally spealing, Morocco east to Afghanistan, Sudan in the south to Turkey in the north.

By “Modern World Coins” we mean here, generally, the round, flat, shiny metal objects that people have used for money and still do. “Modern,” though, varies by location. There was some other way they were doing their economies, and then they switched over to “modern coins,” then they went toward paper money, now we’re all going toward digital, a future in which kids look at a coin and say “What’s that?” We’ll say: “We used to use those to buy things.” Kids will ask “How?” The main catalog reference is the Standard Catalog of World Coins, to which the KM numbers refer.