Abstract:

Ardanuç is a district of Artvin province today. Ardanuç Castle (Gevhernik / Adakale), whose historical past goes back to the first ages, became one of the most prominent administrative centers of the region in the Middle Ages and Ottoman periods. The subject of our article includes examples of coins minted under the name "Ardanuç" in the Ottoman period in Ardanuç district. It is understood that coins were minted in the Ardanuç mint on a limited and intermittent basis, starting from the time of Suleiman the Magnificent in the 16th century, until the middle of the 19th century. However, to the present day, Suleiman the Magnificent, II. Selim and III: A total of 36 coins, three of which were gold and the rest were silver coins, belonging to Mahmud could be reached. It is understood that the majority of these rare coins minted in the Ardanuç mint are in foreign collectors and museums. Although it is known that very few of them are in our country, it is seen that Gümüşhane province and Gümüşhane village in Ardanuç district can be confused due to the similarity of names. It can be learned from Ottoman archive documents that these coins were obtained from the mineral deposits in Gümüşhane village, a village of Ardanuç district. For the purpose of our research, no publications containing compact Ardanuç minted coins have been found so far. By us, T.C. Thanks to the Surveys (1998-2019) we conducted in Artvin and its districts on behalf of Van Yüzüncü Yıl University with the permission of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, after the determination of the area confirming the production with the mineral deposits/galleries of Gümüşhane village, all the coins belonging to this place were tried to be determined. Afterwards, the catalog studies of the existing coins were completed and the coins that could be read were tried to be defined together with their Ottoman Turkish. Article; As it is original, it also has the feature of being the first in its field in terms of content. In the next stage, we hope to reach more concrete data about the Ardanuç mint.

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