Coin circulation in the Bulgarian lands under Ottoman rule

This section analyses the coin circulation during the period of Ottoman rule in the Bulgarian lands. It begins with the cessation of the existence of the Bulgarian state, when the Ottoman coin became the domestic currency for all subjects of the Sultan, including the Bulgarians. European gold and silver issues also circulated together with it, and they differed significantly in the different periods. Special attention is paid to the different types of Ottoman and European coin denominations, monetary reforms, the metal content and the counterfeiting of coins. One of the main points in this study is the presentation for the first time in Bulgarian language of two very rare Ottoman specimens – of Jem Sultan and from the mint in Provadia, which were recently published in foreign periodicals. There is also mention of a very rare gold coin of Selim I, minted in Algeria in 923 AH (1517 – 1518). The issue was published by L. Lazarov and may serve as evidence that these territories were already under Ottoman rule at that time. The authors examine the various coin hoards from that time, which were discovered on the territory of modern Bulgaria. They were hidden under a variety of circumstances – accidental disappearances, during wars and uprisings, etc. The Ottoman mints from present-day Bulgarian lands have been marked, with the currently most certain workshops being Sofia, Plovdiv, Nikopol and Provadia. This is also the first study of its kind, which largely clarifies what the coinage picture was like in the Bulgarian lands under Ottoman rule in the 15th–19th centuries. In the future, more individual and coin hoards from the Bulgarian lands will be published, which will enrich the species diversity of the coins. This will lead to the confirmation of the reasoning expressed in this paper or to new conclusions regarding coin circulation in these geographical latitudes.