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2½ Piastres
| Issuer | Dette Publique Ottomane |
|---|---|
| Year | 1916 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Piastre (1844-1918) |
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| Obverse description | Rose-pink note with a fine guilloche lattice underprint across the entire field. The Ottoman tughra appears at top centre above multi-line Arabic calligraphic text giving the issuer name and date, while a horizontal band of dense Arabic script runs across the lower centre panel flanked by two manuscript signatures. To the right, a tall arched cartouche in the Ottoman style contains the denomination numeral '2½' above the Arabic value legend 'غروش', all within a delicate guilloche border. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | P №351848 |
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| Comments |
The Dette Publique Ottomane — the Ottoman Public Debt Administration — was a European-controlled financial supervisory body established after the Ottoman default of 1875, giving foreign bondholders direct authority over specific imperial revenue streams. That this institution issued emergency small-denomination currency in 1916 reflects just how badly the regular Ottoman treasury had fractured under wartime strain: the empire was essentially printing money through whatever administrative channel still had functioning infrastructure.
Small fractional notes of this type circulated alongside postage stamp currency and other improvised substitutes, filling a coin shortage that had become acute by the middle of the war.