PARA: COIN OF EGYPT
10 para, 1864: Egypt Eyalet of Ottoman Empire
Ruler: Abdulaziz — the 32nd Sultan of the Ottoman Empire.
All coins of this type are dated to the first year of the reign of Sultan Abdulaziz: ١٢٧٧ (1277 according to the Muslim or Arabic calendar /The lunar Islamic Hijri calendar/ — 1861 according to the usual in the Western world Gregorian calendar). However, these Egyptian coins were issued for a decade. The actual year of minting is indicated by the number on the top of the coin — the ordinal number of the year of the Sultan's reign.
Date on coin: AH 1277 (AH: Latin "Anno Hegirae" — "the year of the Hijra"; Islamic calendar) = 1861 (Gregorian calendar).
٤: 4 — 4th year of the Abdulaziz's reign (1864).
ضرب في مصر: Struck in Misr (Misr — the romanized Arabic name for Egypt).
١٢٧٧: 1277.
Tughra (a calligraphic monogram, seal or signature of a sultan) of Abdulaziz, Sultan of the Ottoman Empire (during this historical period Egypt was part of the Ottoman Empire).
پ ١٠: abbreviated denomination of the coin 10 para (in full — بارة ١٠).
- Bronze: 30 mm - 5.69 g
- Reference price: 3$
COIN PARA — WHERE & WHEN (coins catalog: by names & emitents)
- EGYPT EYALET OF OTTOMAN EMPIRE (17th-19th centuries): para = 1/40 qirsh
- BAGHDAD EYALET OF OTTOMAN EMPIRE (18th-19th centuries): para = 1/40 kuruş
- TRIPOLITANIA EYALET OF OTTOMAN EMPIRE (18th-19th centuries): para = 1/40 kuruş
- ALEPPO EYALET OF OTTOMAN EMPIRE (18th century): para = 1/40 kuruş
- OTTOMAN EMPIRE (17th-20th centuries): para = 3 akçe = 1/40 kuruş
- CRIMEAN KHANATE (17th-18th centuries): para = 1/5 beshlik
- YEMENITE STATES (Sheikhdom of Abu ʽArish, Al Zuhra, Mukhtara, 19th century): para
- SERBIA — KINGDOM OF SERBIA (1868-1917) + GERMAN OCCUPATION (WORLD WAR II, 1942): para = 1/100 dinar
- PRINCIPALITY OF MONTENEGRO (1906-1908) + KINGDOM OF MONTENEGRO (1913-1914): para = 1/100 perper
- YUGOSLAVIA — KINGDOM OF SERBS, CROATS AND SLOVENES (1920-1925) + KINGDOM OF YUGOSLAVIA (1938) + FEDERAL PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA (1945-1953) + SOCIALIST FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA (1965-1991) + STATE UNION OF SERBIA AND MONTENEGRO (1994-2000): para = 1/100 dinar
There are several versions about the origin of the name of the para (بارة) coin. According to one of them (the main one) the term comes from the Persian word "pārah" ("piece, particle of something bigger"). It is also known that in Turkish the phrase "gümüş para" translates literally as "silver coin" (the first para coins were made of silver in the Ottoman Empire).
I also consider the following denominations of coins: "denga-kopeck | para" of Moldavia and Wallachia (1771-1774) and "counterstamped para" of the Hashemite Kingdom of Hejaz (1916).
