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2½ Livres Turques
| Issuer | Dette Publique Ottomane |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 2½ Livres Turques |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Green and grey note with an elaborate arabesque guilloche border enclosing the entire face. A tughra device appears at the top centre, flanked by Arabic inscriptions identifying the Ottoman Public Debt Administration. The denomination numeral 2½ appears in two oval cartouches at left and right, with multi-line Ottoman Turkish text in the central panel and the AH date 1332. The serial number in prefix-letter format is printed in two positions along the lower margin. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Brown and pale-green note with a finely engraved arabesque border matching the obverse design. The value numeral 2½ appears in the upper corners. The central field is entirely occupied by dense multi-line Ottoman Turkish text setting out the legal tender and redemption terms of the note. Two decorative medallion vignettes in the lower portion flank a central floral motif, and a single manuscript signature appears below the text block. |
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| Comments |
The Dette Publique Ottomane — the Ottoman Public Debt Administration — was not a state bank but a foreign creditor body established after the 1881 Muharrem Decree, when the empire ceded direct control over certain tax revenues to European bondholders. By 1914 it had accumulated enough administrative infrastructure to begin issuing emergency paper money, something no bondholder organization had done before or has done since.
The fractional 2½ Livre denomination reflects the acute small-change shortage that gripped the empire during the First World War, when metallic coinage had almost entirely vanished from circulation.