Catalog
500 Livres
| Issuer | Ottoman Public Debt Administration |
|---|---|
| Year | 1916 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | The tughra of Sultan Mehmed V is centered at the top within an ornate cartouche, surrounded by elaborate geometric and floral guilloche border work in blue-green tones that frames the entire note. Arabic inscriptions in thuluth calligraphy occupy the central field, with the denomination '500' appearing in Western numerals at the lower left and in Eastern Arabic-Indic numerals at the lower right. Serial number prefixes appear at center-left and center-right, with a circular seal below the main inscription block and a signature line beneath it. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | دولت علية عثمانية |
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| Comments |
The Ottoman Public Debt Administration was not a bank — it was a European creditor consortium established by the 1881 Muharrem Decree to administer Ottoman revenues directly, bypassing Constantinople's treasury. That it issued currency at all reflects how severely the First World War had disrupted normal Ottoman finance. The 1916 emission came at a moment when the imperial government was fighting on multiple fronts and conventional credit had collapsed.
The OPDA issues of this period are among the more unusual wartime paper money instruments from any belligerent — obligations backed not by a central bank but by an international body technically empowered to collect Ottoman customs, salt, tobacco, and stamp revenues as debt service collateral.