Catalog
50 Livres Turques
| Issuer | Dette Publique Ottomane |
|---|---|
| Year | 1918 |
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| Size | 182 x 116 mm |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is laid out with an elaborate geometric guilloche border framing the entire note in olive-green and pale blue tones. The large numeral '50' appears in bold black at the left and right margins, flanked by circular medallions with intricate arabesque underprints. A central cartouche carries the Ottoman Turkish text of the denomination and date in ornate calligraphy, surmounted by the imperial tughra within an oval vignette at the top centre; a facsimile signature appears below the central inscription panel. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | دولت عليه عثمانية ٢٨ شال ١٣٣٤ LIVRES TURQUES بو سندان ملتزم اولدور |
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| Comments |
The Dette Publique Ottomane — the Ottoman Public Debt Administration — was not a state bank but a foreign creditor body established after the 1881 Muharrem Decree, through which the Ottoman government formally surrendered control of key revenue streams to European bondholders. Its authority to issue banknotes during the First World War was an emergency measure born of the empire's collapsing fiscal position, not any conventional banking mandate.
By 1918, the Ottoman treasury was exhausted. Notes of this series circulated alongside those of the Imperial Ottoman Bank and various Kaime issues in a monetary environment so fragmented that exchange rates between nominally parallel instruments fluctuated wildly in the markets of Istanbul. The 50 Livres denomination represented serious purchasing power — and serious inflation risk in the same breath.
Printed by the state printing works in Istanbul, the series was among the last issued before the armistice of Mudros in October 1918 effectively ended the empire's independent financial operations.