Turkey 500 Kurush Gold Coin 1962 Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
Obverse: Head of Atatürk left within circle of stars, wreath surrounds
Reverse: Country name and date in ornate monogram within circle of stars, floral border surrounds
Composition: Gold
Fineness: 0.9170
Weight: 35.0800 g
AGW: 1.0342 oz
Kemal Atatürk
Kemal Atatürk ( Turkish: “Kemal, Father of Turks”) , original name Mustafa Kemal, also called Mustafa Kemal Paṣa (born 1881, Salonika [now Thessaloníki], Greece — died Nov. 10, 1938, Istanbul, Turkey), soldier, statesman, and reformer who was the founder and first president (1923–1938) of the Republic of Turkey. He modernized the country’s legal and educational systems and encouraged the adoption of a European way of life, with Turkish written in the Latin alphabet and with citizens adopting European-style names.
One of the great figures of the 20th century, Atatürk rescued the surviving Turkish remnant of the defeated Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I. He galvanized his people against invading Greek forces who sought to impose the Allied will upon the war-weary Turks and repulsed aggression by British, French, and Italian troops. Through these struggles, he founded the modern Republic of Turkey, for which he is still revered by the Turks. He succeeded in restoring to his people pride in their Turkishness, coupled with a new sense of accomplishment as their backward nation was brought into the modern world. Over the next two decades, Atatürk created a modern state that would grow under his successors into a viable democracy. (For a more complete discussion of this period in Turkish history, see Turkey, history of: The emergence of the modern Turkish state.)