Catalog
1.000 Kuruş
| Issuer | Ottoman Imperial Treasury (Hazine-i Amire) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1840 |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | Plain paper ground bearing Ottoman Turkish manuscript inscriptions in Arabic script arranged in horizontal lines across the central field, with two large circular official seals (mühr) impressed in ink — one near the upper centre and one in the lower half. Handwritten numerals and text denote the denomination and issue details, with an additional cursive signature or authorization inscription below the upper seal. The overall layout reflects the hand-produced, document-style character of these earliest Ottoman paper money issues, known as Kaime. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | كايمه ١٠٠٠ قروش |
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| Comments |
The 1,000 Kuruş of 1840 belongs to the first generation of Ottoman paper money ever issued — the Kaime-i mutebere-i nakdiye, introduced under Sultan Abdülmecid I as an emergency fiscal measure to fund military expenditures following the costly Egyptian crisis of 1839 and the broader strain of Tanzimat-era reforms. The Ottoman state had no central bank at this point; the Hazine-i Amire issued these notes directly as interest-bearing instruments, a hybrid of bond and banknote that the public treated with considerable skepticism.
Forgery was a serious problem almost immediately. The security apparatus was rudimentary — a hand-applied official seal — and the notes were produced domestically without the sophisticated intaglio printing available to European issuers of the period. Later Kaime emissions required increasingly elaborate countermeasures precisely because this inaugural series proved so easy to replicate.