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1 Piastre Law of 23 May AH1332
| Issuer | Ottoman Public Debt Administration (Düyun-u Umumiye) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1916 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | دولت عليه عثمانية ٢٣ مايس ١٣٣٢ تاريخ قانون موجبيله ١ غروش |
| Reverse description | Printed in green on pale paper, the reverse centres on an oval vignette set within an elaborate guilloche cartouche, enclosing a landscape scene with palm trees, a river, camels and figures in the foreground against a distant horizon. A pointed mandorla-shaped guilloche ornament rises vertically at centre, flanked to the right by a rosette panel containing multi-line Ottoman text stating the note's legal tender conditions. The serial number prefix letter and numeral serial appear in black below the vignette and within the right panel respectively. |
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| Comments |
The Düyun-u Umumiye — the Ottoman Public Debt Administration — was not a bank but a foreign creditor body established in 1881 to manage repayment of the empire's defaulted external debt, with revenues from several tax streams assigned directly to it. That it ended up issuing emergency fractional currency during the First World War reflects how severely the regular banking apparatus had collapsed under wartime conditions.
The AH1332 law date corresponds to 1914 in the Gregorian calendar, though physical issue of these 1-piastre notes came later. Small-denomination paper of this type circulated heavily among civilian populations where coin had entirely disappeared from daily trade.