The Imperial Ottoman Bank, though nominally an Anglo-French institution headquartered in Constantinople, had its later wartime notes printed in Berlin — a direct consequence of the Ottoman Empire's alliance with Germany and the effective severance of access to the bank's traditional Western European print suppliers after 1914. Reichsdruckerei had by 1918 absorbed substantial wartime printing contracts across the Central Powers.
The 1918 series was issued under severely strained conditions, with the Ottoman economy in near-collapse and the empire weeks away from the Armistice of Mudros in October. Notes from this printing saw very little meaningful commercial use before the political situation rendered the issuing authority itself obsolete.
The Imperial Ottoman Bank, though nominally an Anglo-French institution headquartered in Constantinople, had its later wartime notes printed in Berlin — a direct consequence of the Ottoman Empire's alliance with Germany and the effective severance of access to the bank's traditional Western European print suppliers after 1914. Reichsdruckerei had by 1918 absorbed substantial wartime printing contracts across the Central Powers.
The 1918 series was issued under severely strained conditions, with the Ottoman economy in near-collapse and the empire weeks away from the Armistice of Mudros in October. Notes from this printing saw very little meaningful commercial use before the political situation rendered the issuing authority itself obsolete.