Catalog
25 Livres Turques
| Issuer | Dette Publique Ottomane |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
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| Reference(s) | P#105 |
| Obverse description | Printed in dark red and pink on an off-white ground, the obverse is framed by an elaborate interlaced geometric and floral guilloche border enclosing a central arched cartouche. Denomination numeral '25' occupies the upper-left and lower-left corners, with its Arabic equivalent '٢٥' at upper-right and lower-right. The central arch contains multiple lines of naskh-script Ottoman Turkish identifying the issuing authority and date, with two serial number impressions in block Latin characters flanking a central seal vignette in the lower field. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse lettering | ٢٥ بو ورقه نن قبولنه دائر شرائط |
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| Comments |
The Dette Publique Ottomane — the Ottoman Public Debt Administration — was a European-controlled financial body established in 1881 after the empire defaulted on its foreign loans. By 1917, with the empire deep in World War I and the treasury effectively bankrupt, it was issuing paper currency under Ottoman authority but within an institutional framework originally designed to protect European creditors, not Ottoman subjects.
Wartime inflation savaged confidence in these notes almost immediately. The series circulated alongside German-backed treasury bills and competing local scrip, and purchasing power eroded faster than new denominations could be introduced.