Catalog
1 Livre Turque
| Issuer | Dette Publique Ottomane |
|---|---|
| Year | 1915 |
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| Printer | Giesecke & Devrient |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | هيئت عمومية عثمانية ١٨ نيسان ١٣٣١ A 102524 |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed entirely in red-brown on plain cream paper, dominated by a large central cartouche of dense guilloche rosette work framing a block of Ottoman calligraphic text setting out the legal tender declaration and payment obligations of the Ottoman Public Debt Administration. The surrounding border repeats the arabesque medallion pattern seen on the obverse, and a single manuscript signature appears beneath the central text block. |
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| Comments |
The Dette Publique Ottomane — the Ottoman Public Debt Administration — was a European-controlled financial supervisory body imposed on the Sublime Porte after the default of 1875. That a debt collection agency nominally run by creditor nations was still issuing Ottoman currency as late as 1915 reflects how deeply foreign interests had embedded themselves into Ottoman fiscal infrastructure, even as the empire fought alongside Germany in the First World War.
Giesecke & Devrient in Leipzig handled the printing — a logical choice given the wartime alliance, with British and French security printers obviously unavailable. Earlier OPDA series had used western European firms, and the shift is visible in the typographic conventions G&D brought to the job.