1/2 Livre Turque

The Imperial Ottoman Bank turned to Giesecke & Devrient in Leipzig for this series because wartime conditions had severed access to its usual French and British printing suppliers — the bank's founding charter was itself Anglo-French, which made the switch to a German press a pointed consequence of Ottoman entry into the war on the side of the Central Powers in late 1914.

The 1/2 Livre denomination was specifically intended to address a severe shortage of small-change silver, which had been hoarded or melted almost immediately after mobilization began. Cotton substrate was chosen for durability in heavy street circulation, not as a premium measure.