500 Livres Turques

The Dette Publique Ottomane — the Ottoman Public Debt Administration — was a European-controlled body established after the Ottoman state's default in 1881, its finances placed under international receivership. That this institution was still issuing currency in 1918 tells you something about how completely the empire's fiscal structure had collapsed by the final year of the war: the Treasury could not issue notes on its own credibility alone, and the OPDA's European imprimatur was needed to give the paper any claim to legitimacy.

The 500 Livres denomination was enormous for wartime circulation. Hyperinflationary pressure in the final Ottoman war years made large-denomination notes necessary but also immediately suspect.