Years ago when I was stationed in Ankara I went to Istanbul to help out our guys at the Airport with their IT. While I was there I went to a big outdoor market that was very famous at the time - but I can't remember the name. Any taksi driver will know it though.
While there I bought all kinds of stuff - the obligatory puzzle box and puzzle rings, and a few other Turkish things, but I was more interested in the other stuff. They had all kinds of different old money like US silver certificates, I got a 1929 2$ bill with the red writing, silver coins, 1st gulf war stuff like the surrender hankies and the fake Iraqi Dinar notes with surrender instructions on the back, WW2 Deutschmarks, Iran and Iraq money, Russian military stuff like an Army hat, medals and a pilot's watch, Russian rubles, and really old Ottoman Empire stuff like old coins and a really nice bowl I still use for pistachio nuts. Oh yea - get a kilo of those nuts. They rock. And again - try some iskendar with an elma chi and an efes.
If you have the time you should check that place out. I didn't buy any gold other than the puzzle rings there but that was because I had a jeweler in Ankara that gave me spot price on whatever I wanted (I brought him a fair amount of business from the base).
Years ago when I was stationed in Ankara I went to Istanbul to help out our guys at the Airport with their IT. While I was there I went to a big outdoor market that was very famous at the time - but I can't remember the name. Any taksi driver will know it though.
While there I bought all kinds of stuff - the obligatory puzzle box and puzzle rings, and a few other Turkish things, but I was more interested in the other stuff. They had all kinds of different old money like US silver certificates, I got a 1929 2$ bill with the red writing, silver coins, 1st gulf war stuff like the surrender hankies and the fake Iraqi Dinar notes with surrender instructions on the back, WW2 Deutschmarks, Iran and Iraq money, Russian military stuff like an Army hat, medals and a pilot's watch, Russian rubles, and really old Ottoman Empire stuff like old coins and a really nice bowl I still use for pistachio nuts. Oh yea - get a kilo of those nuts. They rock. And again - try some iskendar with an elma chi and an efes.
If you have the time you should check that place out. I didn't buy any gold other than the puzzle rings there but that was because I had a jeweler in Ankara that gave me spot price on whatever I wanted (I brought him a fair amount of business from the base).