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1/2 Livre
| Issuer | Ottoman Public Debt Administration |
|---|---|
| Year | 1915 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | The tughra of Sultan Mehmed V appears at upper centre beneath the heading in Ottoman script, within an elaborate guilloche border with intricate arabesque underprint throughout. Denomination numerals '1/2' appear in cartouches at each corner, with series letter 'SÉRIE E' at left and serial number at right in letterpress. Multiple lines of Ottoman Arabic text fill the central and lower portions of the note, including the legal tender declaration and date inscription corresponding to AH 1332. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Plain cream-coloured paper with no printed design elements. A small violet handstamp mark is visible in the upper right corner area, likely a control or cancellation mark applied post-issue. |
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| Comments |
The Ottoman Public Debt Administration was not a bank — it was a multinational creditor body established in 1881 to manage the empire's defaulted external debt on behalf of European bondholders. That it issued currency at all is a product of wartime desperation. When the First World War severed the Ottoman government's access to French-printed notes, the OPDA's printing facilities in Constantinople were pressed into service, producing emergency issues that blurred the line between debt administration and monetary authority in ways that would have been legally unthinkable a decade earlier.
Pick 89 belongs to the 1915 kaime series issued under that arrangement. Surviving examples frequently show uneven inking — a known characteristic of the wartime production run.