Ottoman Empire. Abdul Aziz gold 500 Qirsh AH 1277 Year 15 (1875/1876) MS60 NGC, Misr mint (in Egypt), KM265, Kazan-936, Pere-Unl., UBK-pg. 71 (RRRR). Mintage: 56. The final date for the type and the second most challenging of Abdul Aziz's Egyptian series after the prohibitive rare Year 9 500 Qirsh. Often suffering from scattered contact and use in jewelry, the type is further virtually impossible to locate without at least mild evidence of haymarking, making soundly Mint State examples such as this piece a true outlier. Presently one of only two examples in this conditional tier of a mere three total yet certified by NGC, we would note that this year appears to have been completely missing from the Wilski and MacKenzie collections, while the Åke Lindén piece had reportedly been mounted. Interestingly, despite the issue's exceptionally small mintage, at least two obverse dies are known--one with a pair of die flaws below the leftmost stroke of the tughra (see the Kazan and Turath examples), and the other without this feature (this piece, see also the Lindén example).

HID09801242017

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