The akçe or akça (also spelled akche, akcheh; Turkish, Ottoman (1500-1928);: آقچه; pronounced as /tr/, pronounced as /tr/, in Europe known as asper or aspre) was a silver coin which was the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. The basic meaning of the word is "silver" or "silver money", deriving from the Turkish word and the diminutive suffix .[1] Three s were equal to one . One-hundred and twenty s equalled one . Later after 1687 the became the main unit of account, replacing the . In 1843, the silver was joined by the gold lira in a bimetallic system.[2] Its weight fluctuated; one source estimates it between 1.15 and 1.18 grams.[3] The name originally referred to a silver coin but later the meaning changed and it became a synonym for money.
The mint in Novo Brdo, a fortified mining town in the Serbian Despotate rich with gold and silver mines, began to strike in 1441 when it was captured by the Ottoman forces for the first time.[4]
The Suleiman Mosque in Istanbul is said to have cost 59 million akçe when it was constructed in the 1550s. This amount is said to have equalled 700,000 ducats in gold (probably Venetian).
Weight of in grams of silver and index.[5]
| Year | Silver (g) | Index | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1450–60 | 0.85 | 100 | |
| 1490–1500 | 0.68 | 80 | |
| 1600 | 0.29 | 34 | |
| 1700 | 0.13 | 15 | |
| 1800 | 0.048 | 6 |