Kuruş
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kuruş was a Turkish currency subunit. One Turkish lira was equal to 100 kuruş. The kuruş (or Piastre) was also the standard unit of currency in the Ottoman Empire. Originally a large silver coin, in the mid 1800s its value had depreciated to the point where it circulated as both a large copper coin (as 40 para) and a very small silver one as well. It then became a subunit of the Turkish Gold Lira.
Kuruş eventually became obsolete due to the chronic inflation in Turkey in the late 1970s. A currency reform on 1 January 2005 provided its return as the 1/100th of the New Turkish Lira, and it was renamed as Yeni Kuruş (New Kuruş).
The kuruş was also used in Cyprus when the latter was ruled by the Ottoman Empire. It was called grosi (γρόσι, plural γρόσια) by the Greeks of the island. When Cyprus passed to British control, the Cyprus Pound became the currency of the island divided into 20 shillings and each shilling into 9 kuruş / γρόσια / piastres. When later the pound was decimalized into 1000 mils, the people of Cyprus continued calling the 5 mils coin γρόσι / kuruş.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- http://www.osmanlimedeniyeti.com Articles about Ottoman coins (in Turkish)
- http://www.osmanliparalari.com Everything about Ottoman coins (in Turkish and English)
