Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
2½ Livres Turques
| Issuer | Dette Publique Ottomane |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918 |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is dominated by a large central text panel in Ottoman Arabic script, presenting the legal tender and redemption clauses of the note, set against a pale green guilloche underprint. The border repeats the decorative arabesque and floral motif from the obverse, executed in green and red tones, with two circular medallion seals flanking the text block on the left and right. A manuscript signature appears beneath the central text panel, above a stylised floral ornament at the lower centre. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Circular official seal impressed on the obverse; additional circular medallion seals on the reverse. |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Dette Publique Ottomane — the Ottoman Public Debt Administration — was itself a product of European creditor control, established after the empire's 1875 default to manage repayment to foreign bondholders. By 1918, with the empire fighting its last war alongside the Central Powers and the treasury effectively exhausted, the OPDA was issuing emergency currency at denominations including this fractional 2½-livre piece. The arrangement was fiscally peculiar: a debt administration organ functioning as a note-issuing authority.
The seal constitutes the sole security feature, which was thin even by wartime standards. Forgery risk was considerable, and the notes circulated in an economy already destabilized by military requisitioning and severe coin shortages that had been building since 1914.