10 Livres

The Imperial Ottoman Bank did not print this note — the Reichsdruckerei in Berlin did, under wartime agreement between the Ottoman Empire and its German ally. By 1916 the Allies had effectively cut Istanbul off from its usual French and British printers, so Germany stepped in as the practical alternative. The shift is visible in the engraving style if you know what to look for: tighter, harder lines than the Parisian work that dominates earlier Ottoman issues.

The Reichsdruckerei had been printing German state securities and currency since the 1870s, and the Ottoman contract was one of several wartime foreign commissions it handled. Notes from this 1916 series circulated under increasingly difficult conditions as the Ottoman economy deteriorated through the final years of the war.