The main silver coin of the Ottoman Empire was the akçe. It served for centuries as the empire’s chief monetary unit and was widely used for taxation, wages, trade, and everyday payments.
The akçe was associated with the Ottoman state from its early period and was struck in several mints across the empire. Its name is connected with Turkish words meaning “white” or “silver money.” In European sources, the coin was often called the asper. The coin’s weight and silver content changed over time, particularly as the empire faced fiscal pressure and repeated debasement.
The akçe was part of a wider monetary system. Three akçes equaled one para, while 120 akçes equaled one kuruş in the system described by later Ottoman monetary practice. By the late 17th century, the kuruş increasingly replaced the akçe as the principal unit of account. In 1843, the gold lira entered a bimetallic system alongside the silver kuruş.
A common mistake is to choose the lira because it is Turkey’s best-known currency today. The lira belongs to the empire’s later monetary history; the akçe was the classic silver coin associated with Ottoman finance for much of the imperial period.