Described by collectors as Turkey's most valuable banknote, the first emission TL 1,000 bill, printed in Britain, has been put up for sale in an online auction. The historical banknote, which was equivalent to 1,000 gold coins in 1927, is looking for its new owner with the opening bidding of TL 800,000.

Investigative writer Necati Doğan, who organized the auction, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that the first emissions of banknotes including the denominations of 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, 500 and 1,000 were printed in the Thomas de la Rue Printing House in England in the first years of the republic.

Emphasizing that the TL 1,000 banknote had an important place among those printed, both for its economic value at the time and its print run, Doğan said: "The first emission TL 1,000 printed in 1927 was withdrawn from circulation in 1939. During the 12 years it was in circulation, 15,374 copies of it were printed. When it was withdrawn from circulation in 1939, only 23 banknotes were not returned to the central bank for replacement. Only seven out of these 23 non-returned banknotes have survived the present day. This is what makes this a 'very rare' piece."

Recalling that in 1927, when the historical banknote was put into circulation, it was the equivalent of 1,000 full coins, Doğan said, "The first emission TL 1,000 had a great economic value during the time when it was in circulation. In this respect, it was mostly in the hands of banks and merchants. Both the financial size at the time it was in circulation and the small number of prints that have survived to the present day make this money Turkey's most valuable banknote."

Doğan stated that the banknote features a portrait of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, modern Turkey’s founder, on the front and an image of the Geyve strait section of the Sakarya railway line on the reverse side. "The banknote, signed by Mustafa Abdulhalik Renda, then-minister of finance, was printed before the alphabet reform. Therefore, the phrase 'Republic of Turkey' was written in Ottoman Turkish on it. In addition, since French was the diplomatic language at that time, French words were also included on the money," he added.