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1/2 Livre Law of 22 December RC1331
| Issuer | Imperial Ottoman Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1915 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1/2 Livre |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in rose-red on an uncoloured ground, with an elaborate guilloche rosette underprint filling the central field. The Ottoman tughra appears at upper centre beneath the title inscription in Ottoman script, flanked by two circular rosette vignettes at upper left and right each bearing the fractional denomination '1/2'. Series designation 'SÉRIE C' is printed at left in Latin characters, with a handwritten serial number at right, while multiple horizontal bands of dense Ottoman calligraphic text carry the legal tender clauses and authorization language of the Law of 22 Rabiülevvel 1331. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | دولت عثمانيه ٢٢ كانون اول سنه ١٣٣١ تاريخ وقانون موجبنجه SÉRIE C No 443701 |
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| Comments |
The Imperial Ottoman Bank — a Franco-British joint-stock institution, not a state central bank — found itself in an extraordinary position during the First World War. With the Ottoman Empire now at war with France and Britain, the bank's foreign shareholders were technically enemy nationals, yet the institution continued operating under Ottoman authority and issued notes like this one to meet wartime currency demand. The legal awkwardness was never fully resolved; the bank simply kept functioning.
The Law of 22 December reference follows the Rumi calendar convention, placing actual issue in early 1915 by the Gregorian count. Pick 82 is among the smaller-denomination wartime fractional issues, reflecting the acute shortage of coin that plagued Ottoman circulation throughout the war years.