10 Livres Turques

The Dette Publique Ottomane — the Ottoman Public Debt Administration — was an institution imposed on the Sublime Porte after the state bankruptcy of 1875, effectively placing Ottoman revenue collection under European creditor control. By 1916, with the empire deep in World War I and the OPDA's European staff largely gone, the body was issuing emergency paper under circumstances its original architects could never have anticipated.

This series was printed in Constantinople rather than sent abroad, a logistical necessity of wartime. The isolation from European printing houses shows in the production quality — registration inconsistencies are common across the issue, not a sign of damage to individual notes.