10 Kuruş

The 1876 issue came during a period of acute fiscal strain: the Ottoman state had suspended payments on its external debt that same year, an event that ultimately led to the establishment of the Ottoman Public Debt Administration in 1881. The Banque Impériale Ottomane, though nominally a Franco-British institution, was effectively the empire's central bank and was pressed into producing small-denomination notes to ease a chronic shortage of coin in everyday transactions.

The stamp security feature on this series is worth noting — applied locally in Constantinople, it was a practical anti-counterfeiting measure rather than a sophisticated printing solution, reflecting the limited means available for low-value emergency issues of this kind.