20 Kurush

The Ottoman Treasury's direct issue of paper currency in the 1850s was itself a political concession wrung out of the Crimean War's fiscal disaster. The Hazine-i Devlet notes were introduced after the Porte had already exhausted conventional borrowing and were circulating alongside — and competing with — Kaime notes that had already badly eroded public confidence in Ottoman paper money by this point.

The impressed seal was the primary authentication device, a physically applied embossment rather than a printed security element — consequentially, worn or damp examples often show a flattened or nearly invisible seal, which has led to debates over whether some survivors are genuine issues or period forgeries. Pick 26 is scarce in any collectible state.