Catalog
5 Livres Turques
| Issuer | Banque Impériale Ottomane |
|---|---|
| Year | 1909 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Printed in dark brown/maroon on an unadorned cream ground, the reverse centres on a large ornate medallion with a scalloped guilloche frame enclosing Ottoman calligraphic text. Flanking the central medallion are two circular rosette vignettes each bearing the numeral '5'. The words 'LIVRES' and 'TURQUES' are inscribed in arched letterpress above and below the central medallion respectively, completing the bilingual denomination statement. |
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| Protection description | Watermarked cotton paper with a pattern visible when the note is held to light. |
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| Comments |
The Banque Impériale Ottomane was a Franco-British joint venture chartered in 1863, not a state bank — it held the exclusive right to issue banknotes on behalf of the Ottoman government, an arrangement that made it simultaneously a commercial bank and a de facto central bank for an empire increasingly dependent on foreign capital. This 1909 issue falls squarely in the immediate aftermath of the Young Turk Revolution, when the Committee of Union and Progress forced the restoration of the 1876 constitution and deposed Abdülhamid II the following year.
Bradbury, Wilkinson's engraved work for the Ottoman series is among the more technically accomplished currency printing of the period. The watermarked cotton substrate was a deliberate countermeasure — Ottoman banknotes had been forged with enough frequency in the late nineteenth century to become a recurring administrative problem.