20 Kuruş

The Ottoman Treasury's paper money program of the early 1860s was a direct consequence of the Crimean War debt — the empire had been issuing kaime (treasury notes) since 1840, but the financial strain of that conflict accelerated borrowing and forced repeated devaluations. By 1861, public confidence in kaime was badly eroded, and small-denomination notes like this 20 Kuruş circulated in an economy where many recipients actively discounted them against metallic coin.

The embossed seal was the primary anti-counterfeiting measure — printing technology available to the Ottoman Treasury at the time offered limited options.