Return to SMALLSAUCTIONS.COM
Lot 1
Ottoman - Turkey, Mehmed V (1909-18), Ministry of Finance Specimen Livre, AH1331 (1915)
Lot Is Closed Ottoman - Turkey, Mehmed V (1909-18), Ministry of Finance Specimen Livre, AH1331 (1915)
Ottoman - Turkey, Mehmed V (1909-18), Ministry of Finance Specimen Livre, AH1331 (1915) - 1Ottoman - Turkey, Mehmed V (1909-18), Ministry of Finance Specimen Livre, AH1331 (1915) - 2Ottoman - Turkey, Mehmed V (1909-18), Ministry of Finance Specimen Livre, AH1331 (1915) - 3Ottoman - Turkey, Mehmed V (1909-18), Ministry of Finance Specimen Livre, AH1331 (1915) - 4
360 Degrees
Ottoman - Turkey, Mehmed V (1909-18), Ministry of Finance Specimen Livre, AH1331 (1915)
Ended
Reserve not met
Est.
AU$2,750 - AU$3,250
Timed Auction
Cahid Collection of Ottoman Specimen Notes
Category
Description
Pick# 69s, Gaciroglu# RS-1-1 : Serial# A 000000. Unsigned. Imprint of Giesecke & Devrient. 'SPECIMEN' perforated at signature reserve
Condition
PCGS 64, Choice Uncirculated
Medium
Coins, Monies & Stamps
Provenance
Rare Specimen Banknotes of the Last Caliphate from the Collection of Huseyin Cahid. The capture by the Turks of the strategic Byzantine city of Adrianople in 1362 is generally considered by historians as the starting point of the Ottoman Caliphate, which ran until March 3, 1924, when the secularist leader Kemal Ataturk successfully argued for its abolition in the Turkish National Assembly. The Caliph was revered in the Islamic world as the successor to Mohammed and ruled as Sultan over the vast Ottoman Empire, which at its peak at the start of the 17th century covered the continental mass of Southeast Europe, Western Asia and North Africa. The shape of the Empire was continually in flux as the Ottomans seized territory while also battling insurrections and engaging in wars against the Portuguese, Spanish, Austro-Hungarians, and Russians, whose incursions gradually eroded its borders. Leading up to World War I, the Empire had lost most of its African territories to the Italians, and its European territories had either been annexed by rivals or had broken away. During the Great War, the Arab Revolt further loosened its grip on the Middle East. However, it was Turkey's fateful decision to ally economically and militarily with Germany during World War I that resulted in the post-war partitioning of its territories under the Treaties of Versailles and Sevres, a process secretly agreed upon by Great Britain, France and Italy as early as 1915. This brought the Ottoman Empire to its conclusion. The war-era banknotes of the Caliphs, Sultan Mehmed Resad V and Sultan Mehmed Resad VI, were printed from 1915 by the German firm Giesecke & Devrient and were backed by German Treasury Bills, which bankrolled the Turkish economy. However, after the defeat of Germany and the collapse of Ottoman rule, the notes continued to circulate as currency until December 1927, when they were replaced by new notes of the Turkish Republic. The Ottoman war-era notes were emergency issues printed on poor-quality paper and because they were heavily circulated during and after the war, they are all relatively scarce in collectable grades. The larger denominations are extremely rare or virtually unknown outside of museum collections, and in high grade many have only survived as specimens. In 2016, a hundred years after their issue, a hitherto unknown archive of high-grade specimen notes from the late Ottoman era surfaced in Australia. This unique archive had remained in a family's possession for three generations. However, how and when the notes actually arrived in Australia remains a conundrum, as Australia, still smarting from its defeat at Gallipoli, had imposed a post-war ban on Turkish migration until the 1930's. The archive was housed in a contemporary leather-bound presentation album with a gilt title translated as "The Collection of Specimen Notes of All Notes of the State Ministry of Finance." A further notation in the album read: "All the notes for which I was responsible." The archive once served as the reference collection of Huseyin Cahid, the Vice-President of the Ottoman Parliament, and exactly mirrored the circulation issues that bear his signature. Cahid was a Turkish ultra-nationalist who was antagonistic toward the Turkish-Armenian population. He closely vetted all the new banknote designs and falsely accused another parliamentarian, Voskan Martikaian, the head of the Post-Telegraph Service, of conspiring to hide secret Armenian codes in their designs. His clear signature can be found in black ink alongside the notation Approuve 14.3.16 on the bottom of a Quarter Livre Specimen (Lot 13 in our sale). The album also contained the definitive list of the total print run of 208,588,450 livres, showing that 156,000,000 livres were released into circulation with another 52,588,450 held in reserve. The breakdown was as follows: 50,000 Livre - 40 1,000 Livre - 5,210 500 Livre - 25,670 100 Livre - 243,250 50 Livre - 362,100 25 Livre - 728,200 10 Livre - 2,024,675 5 Livre - 5,347,000 2 1/2 Livre - 4,036,000 1 Livre 46,050,000 1/2 Livre - 28,492,400 1/4 Livre - 9,970,000 20 Piastre - 21,875,000 5 Piastres - 73,400,000 The 50,000 Livre of AH1332 (1916) is the key note in the series and was the highest-value note of its time, being the equivalent of fifty thousand 100-kurush gold coins with a combined gold weight of 10,340 troy ounces. At the time, gold traded at around US $21 per ounce, so when issued, the 1916 50,000 Livre note had a denominated value of almost US $220,000 or, in today's gold value, about USD $34,000,000. Only forty of the 50,000 Livre notes were ever printed, and such is this note's extreme rarity that today only a few specimens survive. Similarly, the small numbers printed of the 1,000 Livre (5,210) and the 500 Livre (25,670) accounts for the tatty state of the few surviving circulated notes, which are generally found heavily soiled and repaired. For collectors of high-grade notes, it is really only in Huseyin Cahid's archive collection of lightly cancelled specimens that the colour and intricate calligraphy of these Ottoman notes can be fully appreciated.
Literature
Issued under Currency Law of 30 March AH1331 (1915-16)
Quantity
1
Exhibited
Paper Money, Middle East