Agatha Christie and the Mejidi, an Ottoman Turkey silver coin

WillieBoyd2

Max Mallowan was a British archaeologist in the 1930's. In the late 1930's he was working in Syria at Chagar Bazar, a site located near Syria's border with Turkey. His wife, the British mystery writer Agatha Christie, accompanied him and wrote a book about her experiences there. The book, Come Tell Me How You Live by Agatha Christie Mallowan, was published in 1946.

The book is less about archaeology than the British expedition members and their relations with the native workers who were mostly Moslem Arabs and Kurds with a few Christians.

At the time the workers were paid in "hard money" or coins.

Syria had been a province in Ottoman Turkey but in 1923 the League of Nations gave the country to France as a "mandate".

From Come Tell Me How You Live:

Complications arise when the men have to be paid. The official currency of the country is the French franc. But in this part of the world the Turkish mejidi has been in use so long that the conservative inhabitants regard nothing else as satisfactory. The bazaars deal in that currency though the banks do not. Our men refuse persistently to be paid in anything except the mejidi.

Consequently, having got the official currency from the bank, Michel has then to be dispatched to the bazaars to change it into the illegal currency that is the "effectif" locally.

The mejidi is a large, heavy coin. Michel staggers in with trays of these—handfuls, bagfuls! He pours them out upon the table. They are all very dirty, and smell of garlic!

The "mejidi" was named after the Ottoman sultan Abdul Mejid who first issued the coin in 1844. "Mejid" means "Glorious" in Arabic.

A Mejidi:

Turkey "Mejidi" 20 Kurush (Piastres) Sultan Mehmed V AH 1327 Regnal Year 9
Silver, 37 mm, 23.85 gm
The AH year 1327 is the Ottoman Sultan's first year (AD 1909)
The coin date is 1327 + the regnal year - 1 or AH 1335 (AD 1917)

A French Syria coin:

France Syria 25 Piastres (Qirsh) 1936
Silver, 24.0 mm, 4.95 gm

Is it allowed to clean coins which "smell of garlic?"

1984worldcoins

Coins in a context, what can be more interesting?