100 Kurush 2nd Kaime Issue
Ottomans; Ottoman Rule of Palestine – Ottoman Paper Money
Palestine was ruled by the Ottoman Empire for a number of decades roughly between 1850 and 1917, during which, Palestine was part of the Palestine-Syria jurisdiction and province. Hence, Palestine as a dependent entity of the overall Ottoman Empire ruling followed its monetary system.
The earlier phase of the Ottoman ruling, gold coins were the dominant legal tender for conducting public financial transactions; in due time, it had proven that dealing with gold coins was not practical, especially when exercising large banking transactions. Besides, public did not regard damaged gold coins as acceptable. The Imperial Ottoman Bank found an alternative by introducing paper money to the market, which was first recorded in 1863. It did not gain momentum due to public trust and lack of understanding; public did not realize the fact that paper money was actually supported by gold reserves in banks.
Ottoman paper money started to appear in Palestine (the Palestine-Syria province) in 1914. Two requests were sent to the main office of the Imperial Ottoman Bank (IOB) in Turkey by their branches in Beirut and Jaffa (January and October of 1914 respectively) for banknotes to be circulated in Palestine. IOB responded accordingly.