www.925-1000.com

I wasn't sure whether to post this in the Europe forum or the Middle East forum - my apologies if I'm posting in the wrong forum. I also got the seller's written permission to use these images to ask for an expert opinion.

In any case, I came across an interesting 800 silver plate that was gifted by an entity or person to a renowned German geologist. In the middle, there is also a Turkish coin. I'm not really a coin guy, much less a Turkish coin guy, so I have no idea as to what kind of coin it is. There is also an engraving/inscription on the piece that speaks to the geologist, Egon T. Degens. The seller believes this was gifted by his Turkish colleagues for his 60th birthday; he unfortunately passed away soon after. It is marked 800, followed by some numbers/letters that I cannot decipher.

So really, other than the geologist, I don't know anything about this piece. It's a more recent piece, dated to 1988, but seems to have quite a bit of history behind it, which is really cool. This is also the first Turkish piece that I'm come across. Any insight was be very much appreciated.

• Can I safely assume that this is 800 silver?
• Any thoughts on the maker?
• What kind of coin is it? Is it also silver?

Here're the images. Thank you in advance.

Hello AllSeasons

On the face of the coin which has three lines of text and a number, the third line is قسطنطينيه which is Ḳosṭanṭīnīye (Constantinople) in Ottoman Turkish. I believe that refers to where the coin was minted

The number underneath is ١٢٥٥ or 1255 Hijri calendar. 1255 Hijri is 1839 CE. This date indicates the year that the current Sultan assumed his position. In 1839 Abdulmajid I became Sultan and his reign lasted until 1861. His tughra is on file at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tugh ... ecid_I.JPG and this matches the tughra on your coin.

I realize that this does not address your questions about the plate but hope this might aid your inquiries. If you google "Turkish presentation plates with Ottoman coins" you will find similar items on well known commercial sites

Hope this is of interest

Damon

Thank you! That's very helpful. So I can assume that the coin is dated to somewhere between 1839 and 1861? Also, do you know the denomination of the coin, as in 1 lira, 5 lira, etc.?

Hi,
There is number 6 under tughra, indicating 6th.year of rule, meaning the coin is dated 1845. If the diameter of the coin is 37 mm, then it is 20 kurush or one fifth of Ottoman lira.
(weight 24 grams, fineness 830). Lower silver content is an indicator of decline of Ottoman Empire.
Regards

Thank you! I think I'm good on the coin itself. Does anyone have any ideas on the plate itself and the "800 E69" mark? Can I safely assume that it's solid 800 silver? I found a couple of other similarly marked ones online. Interestingly enough, I just searched for "800 E69 silver", but the only ones that showed up were Turkish. Please see below; both of them were already sold.

This one is from Barnebys, which is obviously a very trusted auction house, but they didn't have an image of the mark:



This one is from a third-party auction site (not eBay) with the mark:

The plate is most likely 800. At times Turkish silversmiths do use lower silver purity like 770, 780 to make an additional cheeky profit, but it is usually around or close to 800. E69 is the number for a specific workshop most likely at Kapalıçarşı. For a period, there was a system to identify the makers but that is no longer used. There is a list to it but I do not have it myself.

AllSeasons wrote:Thank you! I think I'm good on the coin itself. Does anyone have any ideas on the plate itself and the "800 E69" mark? Can I safely assume that it's solid 800 silver? I found a couple of other similarly marked ones online. Interestingly enough, I just searched for "800 E69 silver", but the only ones that showed up were Turkish. Please see below; both of them were already sold.

This one is from Barnebys, which is obviously a very trusted auction house, but they didn't have an image of the mark:



This one is from a third-party auction site (not eBay) with the mark: