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1/2 Livre Law of 18 October RC1331
| Issuer | Imperial Ottoman Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1915 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in rose-red on a plain paper ground, with the denomination '1/2' appearing in Arabic-Ottoman numerals at both upper left and upper right corners, each surmounted by a small ornamental tughra-style emblem. A large central oval guilloche cartouche carries dense Arabic calligraphic text, flanked by intricate arabesque scrollwork borders. The series letter 'SERIE D' is printed in Latin script at lower left, with the serial number at lower right, and two manuscript signatures appear at the foot of the note beneath several lines of Ottoman script legal text. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is essentially plain, printed on unadorned cream-white paper with no primary vignette or text design, showing only faint ghosting of the obverse impression visible through the thin paper stock, consistent with the wartime emergency issue character of this note. |
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| Comments |
The Imperial Ottoman Bank was a Franco-British joint enterprise — nominally private, functionally the Ottoman state's central banking arm. Its note issues during the First World War were made under Ottoman government authorization rather than independent commercial decision, as the bank had by 1914 already lost much of its operational independence to wartime fiscal pressures from Constantinople.
The "Law of 18 October" reference embedded in the title denotes the Ottoman legal instrument (Rumi calendar 1331) authorizing this fractional issue — a signal that coin shortages had grown severe enough to require paper coverage of sub-livre denominations, something the bank had historically resisted.