See full images — free registration
Continue with Google — it's free or register with email

10 Kurush

Issuer Banque Impériale Ottomane
Year 1876
Type Standard circulation banknote
Value Log in to see details
Currency Log in to see details
Composition Log in to see details
Size Log in to see details
Shape Log in to see details
Printer Log in to see details
Designer(s) Log in to see details
Engraver(s) Log in to see details
In circulation to Log in to see details
Reference(s) Log in to see details
Obverse description Log in to see details
Obverse lettering اوراق نقدية
دولت عليه دن
يالكزاون غروشلق
قائمة معتبرةدر
Reverse description Log in to see details
Reverse lettering Enregistre Par la
BANQUE IMPÉRIALE OTTOMANE
CONSTANTINOPLE
1876
Signature(s) Log in to see details
Protection type Log in to see details
Protection description Log in to see details
Variants Log in to see details
Comments

The Banque Impériale Ottomane was a Franco-British joint-stock institution, not a state bank — it held the Ottoman government's account and enjoyed note-issuing privileges under a series of imperial firmans, the most consequential granted in 1863. This 10 Kurush belongs to the 1876 series issued against the backdrop of the empire's formal declaration of bankruptcy that same year, when the Ottoman Public Debt Commission was still years from being established and foreign creditors were growing openly hostile.

Low-denomination kurush notes from this period suffered heavy wear in bazaar circulation and are genuinely scarce in any condition. The 1876 series was printed with French and Ottoman Turkish text, reflecting the bank's dual administrative character.