Banknotes of the Imperial Ottoman Bank — Eldem Edhem

This book attempts to present all the banknotes and instruments of circulation issued by the Imperial Ottoman Bank from 1863 to 1914 within the framework of its privilege The main reason behind this effort is to complete the patchy or sometimes altogether missing information available to this day Indeed even though some of the general features and figures of the bank s issue were already known this information still remained extremely superficial To give but one concrete example of the limits and superficiality of this knowledge it should suffice to say that there was no clear information as to the exact dates and numbers of each issue Figures and dates relating to the withdrawal cancellation and incineration of these banknotes were even harder to come by In short it was clear that the only source likely to bring some clarity to the matter was the bank s own records The Ottoman Bank historical research project initiated in 1997 with the collaboration of the Ottoman Bank and the Economic and Social History Foundation of Turkey made it possible to unearth one after the other all the documents relating to the Imperial Ottoman Bank s role as a bank of issue Today it is possible to study in great detail every single issue of the bank to the point of following the fate of an individual banknote from issue to cancellation and to incineration This book consists therefore of a systematic presentation of these sources and of the information that can be derived from them