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½ Livre Turque
| Issuer | Dette Publique Ottomane |
|---|---|
| Year | 1916 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is printed in red-brown on a pale ground and carries extensive Arabic-script text arranged in multiple registers within an elaborate guilloche border. The tughra of Sultan Mehmed V appears at the top centre above the principal Ottoman text, with the fractional denomination '½' repeated in ornate cartouches at each of the four corners. Series letter 'E' is printed in Latin characters at the lower left, balanced by the serial number in the lower right area. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is largely unprinted, presenting a plain cream paper surface with visible fold lines. A small violet handstamp impression appears in the upper right corner, the sole mark on an otherwise blank face. |
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| Comments |
The Dette Publique Ottomane — the Ottoman Public Debt Administration — was a nominally independent body controlled largely by European creditors, established after the empire's 1881 default. That it ended up issuing emergency currency during the First World War is one of the odder bureaucratic improvisations of the period, driven by the severe shortage of coinage and the collapse of normal financial channels under wartime conditions.
The 1916 fractional issues, including this half-livre, were printed under considerable logistical constraint. Paper quality and ink consistency vary noticeably across surviving examples of the series.