History of Turkish Money

Turkish money has seen many difficulties and its history, though not as turbulent as Turkish history is quite interesting in its own way.

Originally, the lira was a gold coin that was first introduced in 1844 before which the Ottoman Empire used the 'akce' that was replaced by the 'kurus' (piaster) and the para as its part. The 'kurus' was originally a large silver coin that was reduced in size later on and was one hundredth of a gold lira. Each 'kurus' was equal to 40 para.

Soon paper money was introduced by the Imperial Ottoman Bank that was valued by the help of 'kurus' with denominations ranging from 5 to 5000 'kurus'. The lira soon took over the 'kurus' in mid 1870s and had denominations of 5 to 1000 liras. Further, there was the 50,000-lira banknote that helped to solve the problem of small money like 1 and 2.5 'kurus'.

Turkey soon abandoned the gold standard by the First World War, and by the early 1920s the gold lira could be equated to about nine liras in paper money. Soon the older Imperial Ottoman paper liras were again replaced with the Turkish lira in the form of medium sized silver coins. Notes were also introduced in the denominations of 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 lira. The notes then carried the picture of the Turkish National hero, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, but following his death in 1938 new notes carried the picture of President Ismet Inonu. However, in the 1950s the picture of Ataturk reappeared on the notes. The sun set on the Turkish currency from the late 1970s, when the Turkish lira decreased in value at an alarming rate in comparison to chief currencies.