1 Livre Turque

The Dette Publique Ottomane — the Ottoman Public Debt Administration — was a European-controlled body established in 1881 after the empire defaulted on its foreign loans. That a debt management agency was issuing currency by 1916 reflects how badly the war had strained the regular treasury. These notes circulated alongside issues from the Imperial Ottoman Bank, and the public treated the two with roughly equal suspicion.

The 1916 series was printed in Constantinople rather than abroad, a necessity once wartime conditions severed reliable access to Western printing houses. Domestic production meant cruder security features, and the notes were subsequently counterfeited at a scale that accelerated their withdrawal.