History of Ottoman Coins, Volume 6 / Osmanli Sikkeleri Tarihi - Cilt 6

From the end of the sixteenth century onwards, various administrative, military, industrial, commercial, financial and social developments, which occurred within the boundaries of the Ottoman state and throughout the world, were instrumental in exacerbating the economic problems of the Ottoman Empire. These developments which greatly affected coin minting can be summarised briefly as follows: The silver crisis that emerged due to the closure of the silver mines in the 17th century in the Ottoman Empire was also a factor causing the collapse of the Ottoman monetary system. The standards of the coins produced at the mints outside of Istanbul started to degrade and the state was not able to inspect the fineness and measures of the coins due to the weakness of the central authority. The state which could not control the mints under these difficult circumstances ended the operations of many of them. While the number of mints producing coins had been above 50 at the beginning of the century, as of the mid-17th century the number of active mints came down to less than 10 as indicated in the list below. The present volume of this work, which is expected to be completed in nine volumes, covers the reigns of sultans Mustafa I, Osman II, Murad IV, Ibrahim and Mehmed IV, and contains: Year-by-year chronological information regarding the 67 years of these sultanates; the most significant historical developments of this period; detailed information on coins. This volume includes the details of 28 coins of Sultan Suleyman II, 18 coins of Sultan Ahmed II, 104 coins of Sultan Mustafa II, 346 coins of Sultan Ahmed III and 335 coins of Sultan Mahmud I; i.e. 831 gold and silver coins. Additionally, the book provides the local history of nearly 50 provinces which issued coins during these reigns and examines the characteristics of the coins minted in these provinces. An inventory of the coins belonging to the sultans is provided at the end of the book.