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10 Para Postage Stamp Money
| Issuer | Ottoman Empire |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 38 × 25 mm |
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| Obverse description | A postage stamp converted to emergency currency, printed in green and red on buff cardboard with perforated edges on all sides. The central vignette shows a camel with rider set against a palm tree and cityscape with minarets in the background, enclosed within a geometric chain-link border. An octagonal cartouche in the upper right bears the Ottoman crescent and star emblem, while large black overprint text in Ottoman script across the face establishes the monetary denomination, accompanied by a red radiating-line underprint pattern. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Unifacial; the reverse is plain, unprinted buff-pink cardboard with a slightly textured surface and perforated edges visible on all sides, bearing no design, text, or markings. |
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| Comments |
Turkey's wartime shortage of metal coinage during World War I drove the Ottoman government to issue encased and printed postage stamp money — this 10 Para piece being among the smallest denomination cardboard notes produced under that program. The practice was not unique to the Ottomans; Germany, France, and Russia all resorted to similar expedients, but the Ottoman series is notable for its exceptionally thin legal foundation and the speed with which it was adopted.
Cardboard examples from this series are notoriously prone to corner splitting along the short edges, a structural weakness inherent to the stock used.