Lot 3737

Description

Turkey, Ottoman Empire, Mehmed V (1909-1918), State Notes of the Ministry of Finance, specimen fifty thousand livres, AH1332 (1916), No. 00, unsigned, 'Specimen' in Arabic perforated in five places (P.95s; Gaciroglu RS-4-11). Some toning and slight creasing at the corners, otherwise extremely fine and of the highest rarity.

Pick only lists a price for a specimen, stating that the issue was a deposit note made with the Imperial Ottoman Bank to cover the issues of P.85 (one piastre, AH1332) and P.86 (2-1/2 piastres, AH1332) both released in 1916.

Gaciroglu states that only two examples are known to exist, presumably both specimens given the illustration in his 2011 catalogue. A typed list of denominations and issued numbers that came with this collection reveals only 40 notes were printed.