1 Para - Mahmud II

Tripoli's copper coinage under Mahmud II was struck locally by the Karamanli regency, which had governed the province with near-total autonomy from Istanbul since 1711. By 1808, that autonomy was fraying — Ottoman reassertion of direct control would come by 1835, extinguishing the Karamanli line entirely. Small copper paras like this one served the street economy of a port city whose revenue depended heavily on corsair activity, at precisely the moment American and European naval pressure was beginning to make that income unsustainable.