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2 1/2 Livres
| Issuer | Ottoman Public Debt Administration (Düyun-u Umumiye) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918 |
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| Printer | Bundesdruckerei (Reichsdruckerei), Berlin, Germany (1879-date) |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | دولت عثمانية |
| Reverse description | The reverse presents a predominantly green and red guilloche underprint with a repeating decorative border. The central field contains a lengthy Arabic-script legal text — the promise-to-pay and penalty clauses — arranged in multiple lines within an ogival cartouche. Two circular seal impressions appear at the left and right of the text block, and a manuscript signature is visible below the text panel. The denomination '2½' is indicated in the upper left corner. |
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| Comments |
The Ottoman Public Debt Administration was not a bank but a foreign creditor body — established by the 1881 Muharrem Decree to manage Ottoman state debt repayment directly to European bondholders, with its own revenue streams from tobacco, salt, silk, and spirits taxes. By 1918 the empire was near collapse, and this note is a product of that desperation: with Allied naval blockades cutting Ottoman access to its traditional French printers, the Düyun-u Umumiye turned to wartime Berlin.
Bundesdruckerei — operating under the Reichsdruckerei name at this period — handled several late Ottoman emergency issues. The arrangement was as much a product of the German military alliance as it was a logistical solution.