½ Livre Turque

The Dette Publique Ottomane — the Ottoman Public Debt Administration — was a European-controlled supervisory body established after the empire's 1881 bankruptcy, and its wartime note issues carry that tension directly. By 1917, with the Ottoman treasury exhausted by four years of war and Entente naval blockades severely restricting access to European printing houses, the administration issued paper through what resources remained available domestically.

The half-livre denomination was the smallest in this wartime series, aimed squarely at daily retail transactions where coin shortages had become acute. Cotton paper was a practical necessity — rag stock held up better in the sweaty, rough conditions of wartime circulation than wood-pulp alternatives would have.