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25 Livres
| Issuer | Ottoman Public Debt Administration (Düyun-u Umumiye) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1917 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | The face is dominated by an elaborate interlaced geometric and floral guilloche border in dark red and olive, with teardrop-shaped medallions at the corners. The imperial toughra of Sultan Mehmed V is positioned at upper centre within a circular cartouche, flanked by Arabic inscriptions giving the denomination and issuing authority. The denomination numeral '25' appears in Western and Arabic-Eastern script at lower left and lower right respectively, with the serial number printed twice in black across the lower centre. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | دولت عثمانية |
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| Comments |
The Ottoman Public Debt Administration was not a bank — it was an international creditor body established in 1881 to manage revenues pledged against the Ottoman Empire's defaulted foreign loans. By 1917, with the empire at war alongside Germany and the Allies controlling Mediterranean supply lines, the Düyun-u Umumiye turned to the Reichsdruckerei in Berlin to produce paper currency it would never have issued under peacetime conditions. The arrangement was as much political as logistical.
Reichsdruckerei production for an Ottoman creditor organ in the middle of a German-Ottoman military alliance is a detail that sharpens the note's historical position considerably. It did not survive long as a functioning instrument — the 1918 armistice and the subsequent dissolution of the Düyun-u Umumiye itself in 1923 rendered the entire series obsolete.