The truth about the Egyptian half millieme, issue of 1916

Is there an Egyptian version of the half millieme from 1916? 

Information in numismatics sometimes comes to us in a very brief manner. One such piece of information is the issuance of a half millieme coin by the Egyptian Sultanate in 1916. But what is the truth about this bronze issue?

Let's travel back in time and place to India in 1916, where the mints in Bombay and Calcutta were at their peak activity. All the workers were working tirelessly to complete the minting of coins destined for the Sultanate of Egypt. Before we delve into the details, let's clarify a crucial fact about the mints at that time, particularly those belonging to the British Royal Mint, which will inform our narrative: the mints operated on a fiscal year system, not a calendar year. This meant that the fiscal year ran from July 1st to June 30th, and therefore, minting operations were tied to the state budget, which was approved in the preceding fiscal year.

Let us go back to India. In July 1916, the First World War was raging between the combatants, and the Indian government had approved the budget for its mints. One of those sums was allocated for the minting of the new Egyptian Sultanate coin. The Calcutta Mint was specifically chosen to mint the Egyptian bronze half-millime coin, but Egyptian coins were not the only ones on the mint's list and did not have priority at that time.

Meanwhile, the Indian markets were the largest consumers of bronze coins within the borders of the British Empire and had the highest priority in minting those coins from bronze. According to reports from the Calcutta Mint, a list of minting priorities was made, and the Calcutta Mint began minting more than 29 million pieces of three different bronze denominations for India. Second on the priority list was Australia, where more than 8 million pieces of pennie and half-pennie denominations were minted, followed by Egypt in third place with 4 million pieces, and finally the coins of the Straits Settlements, which were later minted from a different copper alloy.

But why were Egyptian coins placed at the bottom of the list? The truth is that, in addition to the Indian government's list of priorities and needs, there were other reasons. Most importantly, despite negotiations between the Sultanate of Egypt and the Egyptian government since February 1916, the order to produce bronze coins was not issued until after the enactment of Law 25 in October 1916, which established a new monetary system in Egypt. By that time, the Calcutta Mint had already begun minting coins for both India and Australia. Furthermore, the Calcutta Mint was also responsible for producing a portion of the medals, decorations, and awards for some of the British Empire's soldiers participating in the raging First World War.

It is worth noting that during that period, a new badge for general military service was created in the name of King George V for use in war and to be placed on soldiers' uniforms. This put the Calcutta mint under pressure, and some may wonder why the Bombay mint wasn't used. The simple answer is that they were committed to minting gold, silver, and nickel coins for Sultan Hussein Kamel, and they faced other difficulties, which we will discuss in a separate article. On the other hand, India was the safest option for minting Egyptian government coins at that time, given the risks of sending money from Britain during wartime and the fear of its loss, as happened in the incident of the ship Persia, which we mentioned in another article. The shipment of coins that Egypt lost in World War I.

On the other hand, the Calcutta Mint reported in its financial year report that, during the preparation of the dies for Egyptian coins in 1916 at the mint's die-engraving workshop, the only engraver and designer of European origin fell ill and was forced to take extended sick leave. This affected the progress of the Egyptian coin production, which was completed in an uneven manner. The die-engraving department informed the Indian government of the urgent need to appoint a new employee of European origin, either in Calcutta or Bombay. Furthermore, correspondence from India to the Egyptian government indicated that another European employee had been sent to France for the war.

Based on all the events that transpired, the half-millim coin of Sultan Hussein was not minted until 1917, after the minting of coins in both India and Australia and the appointment of a new official in the die department to oversee the Egyptian minting dies. The Indian government confirmed in its financial report published that year that the Egyptian silver coins minted between July 1916 and March 31, 1917, were in denominations of 20 piastres, 10 piastres, 5 piastres, and 2 piastres, totaling 18,370,112 pieces. This was because Egyptian silver coins were a priority for the Egyptian government at that time due to the war and their hoarding in Egyptian markets.

As for the nickel coins minted during the same period, they were in denominations of 10, 5, 2, and 1 millimes, totaling 11,702,143 pieces.

The bronze coins of the Egyptian Sultanate are not mentioned as having been minted during the same period, thus confirming that they were not minted on that date. Further corroborating this information is the Indian Mint's inclusion of a photograph of the special coins issued to the Egyptian government for that fiscal year, which only shows the 1917 half-millime coin! It is worth noting that the photograph of the special coin set presented to Sultan Hussein Kamel at the time was also displayed by our colleague Moheb Rizkallah. Issue number four The Arab collector also contains the half millieme from the 1917 issue.

So why are we seeing rumors about this piece being released on this date?

The fact that the spread of a design for the 1916 half millieme in the book of coins by Mr. Hussein Abdel Rahman, which was published during the Egyptian monarchy period, is more than supportive of this theory. Mr. Abdel Rahman mentioned that the bronze coins were minted in the Bombay Mint in India in the name of Sultan Hussein Kamel, and a picture of the design for the 1916 half millieme was shown.

However, let's clarify that some of the information in the book was not publicly available at the time of writing. For example, Hussein Kamel's bronze coins were minted in Calcutta, not Bombay. What's presented in the book is merely a suggested design of the coin, which was never actually produced. The phrase "shape of the coin" refers only to the design. If you continue reading... Issue number four From an Arab collector, you will notice the similarity of the half-millime coin's design to the designs included in the issue, but which did not reach us in Arab collector Original image from the British archives of the Sultan's half millieme.

But to mention all aspects of the truth, we must not overlook the fact that the Egyptian government had already decided to mint half-millime coins for the year 1916, and therefore the design attached to Mr. Hussein's book would not have reached us. What raised suspicions at the time was that in March 1916, during the negotiations and correspondence between the Egyptian government and the Indian government, it was proposed to mint half-millime coins for this year in a quantity equivalent to only 2 million pieces! The Egyptian government recommended minting the equivalent of one thousand Egyptian pounds in bronze coins, given that the markets did not need them at that time and other bronze coins were available in the markets and were accepted in the state treasury.

This is the only explanation for mentioning the design in the Book of Money based on the directions of the Egyptian government at that time. However, this direction soon changed after the delay that occurred in the minting process and after negotiations continued for up to 8 months between the two governments and after difficulties in transferring the designs to India by the army. Egypt then doubled the issuance of the half millieme to 4 million pieces after changing the bronze standard by a decision of the Minister of Finance, Youssef Wahba, and based on the Sultan’s Decree No. 25 issued in October 1916.

All of the above is an attempt to prove that no half millieme was issued for the year 1916 and that it is just a rumor that people have been talking about and that has been passed down through generations, but in reality it does not exist at all.

the reviewer:

Dr. Mazen Ibrahim