Catalog
½ Livre Turque
| Issuer | Dette Publique Ottomane |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
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| Currency | Livre turque (1844-1927) |
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| Obverse description | Printed predominantly in green and pink on cream paper, the obverse is composed entirely of dense Arabic calligraphic text arranged in horizontal registers across the face, framed by an intricate guilloche border. The Ottoman tughra appears at the upper centre, flanked by fraction denomination numerals (½) in green cartouches at each corner. Series letter and serial number are typeset in Latin characters at the mid-left and mid-right respectively, with two manuscript signature lines visible at the lower portion of the note. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | دولتِ عليّۀ عثمانيّه SERIE E ١/٢ |
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| Comments |
The Dette Publique Ottomane — the Ottoman Public Debt Administration — was a European-controlled supervisory body established after the empire's 1881 bankruptcy, and its wartime note issues carry that tension directly. By 1917, with the Ottoman treasury exhausted by four years of war and Entente naval blockades severely restricting access to European printing houses, the administration issued paper through what resources remained available domestically.
The half-livre denomination was the smallest in this wartime series, aimed squarely at daily retail transactions where coin shortages had become acute. Cotton paper was a practical necessity — rag stock held up better in the sweaty, rough conditions of wartime circulation than wood-pulp alternatives would have.