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5 Livres
| Issuer | Ottoman Public Debt Administration |
|---|---|
| Year | 1916 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | The tughra of Sultan Mehmed V is set within an oval cartouche at upper centre, surrounded by elaborate arabesque guilloche borders in blue-green. Corner numerals '5' mark the denomination at each angle, while the Ottoman Turkish legend دولت علیّه عثمانیه is rendered in large calligraphic script across the upper field. The central value inscription in Ottoman script is executed in black intaglio, with the AH date 1332 and serial number printed in red below. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | دولت علیّه عثمانیه بسمله و خمس لیرا استرلینه |
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| Comments |
The Ottoman Public Debt Administration was not a bank — it was an international creditor body established by the 1881 Muharrem Decree to manage the empire's defaulted sovereign debt on behalf of European bondholders. That it issued paper currency at all is a wartime anomaly. By 1916, the empire's financial system was under severe strain from World War I, and the OPDA's notes circulated alongside those of the Banque Impériale Ottomane in a crowded, increasingly unstable monetary environment.
The series of which this is part represents one of the stranger institutional footnotes in Ottoman monetary history — a debt administration acting as a currency issuer out of wartime necessity rather than any conventional banking mandate.