Catalog
1 Livre Turque
| Issuer | Dette Publique Ottomane |
|---|---|
| Year | 1916 |
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| Currency | Livre turque (1844-1927) |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | دولت علية عثمانية ٢٢ كانون ثاني ١٣٣١ E 973853 |
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| Reverse lettering | ديون عمومية عثمانية |
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| Comments |
The Dette Publique Ottomane — the Ottoman Public Debt Administration — was the body established by European creditor powers in 1881 to manage the empire's defaulted external debt, effectively transferring control of several Ottoman revenue streams to foreign bondholders. By 1916, with the empire fighting on multiple fronts and cut off from European capital markets, this same apparatus was pressed into service issuing emergency paper currency. It was an awkward arrangement: an institution created to extract revenue for foreign creditors was now printing money to fund a war against those creditors' home nations.
The 1 Livre Turque notes of this series are prone to foxing along the margins — a known condition issue tied to the wartime paper stock.