Catalog
1 Livre Turque
| Issuer | Dette Publique Ottomane |
|---|---|
| Year | 1915 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Livre turque (1844-1927) |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in brown and green on a cream ground, enclosed within an ornate rectangular border of interlocking foliate and arabesque guilloche work. The centre field carries the Ottoman tughra cipher at the top, flanked by the numeral '1' in Arabic script on both left and right, above multi-line Ottoman calligraphic inscriptions stating the denomination and issuing authority. The serial number appears twice in red at lower left and lower right, with a small oval official seal at centre bottom, and the printer's imprint 'Giesecke & Devrient' along the bottom margin. |
|---|---|
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| 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.