Catalog
100 Livres
| Issuer | Banque Impériale Ottomane |
|---|---|
| Year | 1916 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Lira (1844-1923) |
| 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 | The tughra of Sultan Mehmed V is positioned at upper centre within an ornate oval vignette, surrounded by dense arabesque guilloche borders and intricate geometric interlace patterns filling the entire field. The central panel carries the bank title in Ottoman Arabic script alongside the date 4 Şubat 1322 (February 4, 1907, Ottoman fiscal calendar) and textual value inscriptions. The denomination '100 Livres Turques' appears in Latin script at left and in Arabic numerals at right, with a single manuscript signature below the central text block. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | دولت عثمانية ١٠٠ ليره تركيه ٤ شباط ١٣٢٢ 100 LIVRES TURQUES |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| 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 — nominally a Franco-British joint venture but effectively an instrument of Istanbul's wartime administration by 1916 — issued this 100 Livres during the most financially strained period of the Ottoman war effort. The empire had been cut off from its European creditors, and paper emissions of this size were used partly to service military expenditures the treasury could not otherwise cover.
Printing arrangements during the war years were complicated by the severing of normal ties with European security printers. Whether this note was produced locally or under substitute arrangements remains a point of some bibliographic dispute.