Turkish lira

Turkish lira
Türk lirası (Turkish) تورك لیراسی (Ottoman Turkish)[lower-alpha 1]
1 Coin
ISO 4217 code	TRY (Numeric 949) (TRL was used before 2005)
Central bank	Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey
Website	www.tcmb.gov.tr
User(s)	Turkey  Northern Cyprus
Inflation	7.31% CPI, 1.88% PPI January 2013
Source	Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey
Subunit
1/100	Kuruş
Symbol	[1]
Coins
Freq. used	5kr, 10kr, 25kr, 50kr, 1
Rarely used	1kr
Banknotes	5, 10, 20 50 100 200
Printer	CBRT Banknote Printer
Website	www.tcmb.gov.tr
Mint	Turkish State Mint
Website	www.darphane.gov.tr

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The Turkish lira (Currency sign: ₺ / ; Turkish: Türk lirası)^[2] is the currency of Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (recognised only by Turkey). The Turkish lira is subdivided into 100 kuruş.

Ottoman lira (1844-1923)

After the last vestige of the ancient Roman Empire collapsed with the Fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans, today's Turkish State Mint was founded by Mehmed II. The first golden coin was minted in the name of "The Conqueror" in 1467.^[3]

The Ottoman lira was introduced as the main unit of currency in 1844, with the former currency, kuruş, remaining as a 1/100 subdivision. The Ottoman lira remained in circulation until the end of 1927.^[4]

First Turkish lira (1923-2005)

Historical banknotes from the second, third and fourth issues have portraits of İsmet İnönü on the obverse side. This change was done according to the 12 January 1926 issue of the official gazette^[5][6] and canceled by the Democrat Party after World War II.

Exchange rates

After periods of the lira pegged to the British pound and the French franc, a peg of 2.8 Turkish lira = 1 U.S. dollar was adopted in 1946 and maintained until 1960, when the currency was devalued to 9 Turkish lira = 1 dollar. From 1970, a series of hard, then soft pegs to the dollar operated as the value of the Turkish lira began to fall.

• 1966 – 1 U.S. dollar = 9 Turkish lira
• 1980 – 1 U.S. dollar = 90 Turkish lira
• 1988 – 1 U.S. dollar = 1,300 Turkish lira
• 1995 – 1 U.S. dollar = 45,000 Turkish lira
• 2001 – 1 U.S. dollar = 1,650,000 Turkish lira

The Guinness Book of Records ranked the Turkish lira as the world's least valuable currency in 1995 and 1996, and again from 1999 to 2004. The Turkish lira had slid in value so far that one original gold lira coin could be sold for 154,400,000 Turkish lira before the 2005 revaluation.

Second Turkish lira (2005-present)

In December 2003, the Grand National Assembly of Turkey passed a law that allowed for redenomination by the removal of six zeros from the Turkish lira, and the creation of a new currency. It was introduced on 1 January 2005, replacing the previous Turkish lira (which remained valid in circulation until the end of 2005) at a rate of 1 second Turkish lira (ISO 4217 code "TRY") = 1,000,000 first Turkish lira (ISO 4217 code "TRL"). With the revaluation of the Turkish lira, the Romanian leu (also revalued in July 2005) briefly became the world's least valued currency unit. At the same time, the Government introduced two new banknotes called TRY100 and TRY50. One EU diplomat has stated that Turkey will adopt the Euro if it joins the European Union.^[7]

In the transition period between January 2005 and December 2008, the second Turkish lira was officially called Yeni Türk Lirası (New Turkish lira).^[8] It was officially abbreviated "YTL" and subdivided into 100 new kuruş (yeni kuruş). Starting in January 2009, the "new" marking was removed from the second Turkish lira, its official name becoming just "Turkish lira" again, abbreviated "TL".

All obverse sides of current banknotes and reverse sides of current coins have portraits of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Currency sign

Turkish lira sign  Design limits[10]

The current currency sign of Turkish lira was created by the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey in 2012. The new sign was selected after a country-wide contest.^[11] The new symbol, created by Tülay Lale, is composed of the letter 'L' shaped like a half anchor, and embedded double-striped letter 'T' angled at 20 degrees.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced the new symbol on 1 March 2012.^[12] At its unveiling, Erdoğan explained the design as "the anchor shape hopes to convey that the currency is a 'safe harbor' while the upward-facing lines represent its rising prestige".^[13]

In May 2012, the Unicode Technical Committee accepted the encoding of a new character U+20BA ₺ turkish lira sign for the currency sign,^[14] which was included in Unicode 6.2 released in September 2012.^[15]

Coins

From 1 January 2009, the phrase "new" was removed from the second Turkish lira, its official name in Turkey becoming just "Turkish lira" again;^[16] new coins without the word "yeni" were introduced in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 25, 50 kuruş and 1 Turkish lira. Also, the center and ring alloys of the 50 kuruş and 1 Turkish lira coins were reversed.

Current Turkish lira coins
Image		Value (kuruş)	Technical parameters					Description				Date of
Obverse	Reverse		Diameter (mm)	Thickness (mm)	Mass (g)	Composition		Edge	Obverse		Reverse	first minting	issue
		1	16.5	1.35	2.2		70% Cu, 30% Zn	Plain	Value, Crescent-star, year of minting	Snowdrop	"TÜRKİYE CUMHURİYETİ", Mustafa Kemal Atatürk	2008	1 January 2009
		5	17.5	1.65	2.9		65% Cu, 18% Ni, 17% Zn			Tree of life
		10	18.5		3.15					Rumi motif
		25	20.5		4			Reeded		Kufic calligraphic
		50	23.85	1.9	6.8		Ring: 65% Cu, 18% Ni, 17% Zn Center: 79% Cu, 17% Zn, 4% Ni	Large reeded		Bosphorus Bridge and Istanbul silhouette
		100 (1 )	26.15		8.2		Ring: 79% Cu, 17% Zn, 4% Ni Center: 65% Cu, 18% Ni, 17% Zn	inscribed, T.C. letters and tulip figure		Rumi motif
These images are to scale at 2.5 pixels per millimetre. For table standards, see the coin specification table.

Banknotes

A new series of banknotes, the "E-9 Emission Group" entered circulation on 1 January 2009, with the E-8 group ceasing to be valid after 31 December 2009 (although still redeemable at branches of the Central Bank until 31 December 2019). The E-9 banknotes refer to the currency as "Turkish lira" rather than "new Turkish lira" and include a new 200-Turkish-lira denomination.^[17] The new banknotes have different sizes to prevent forgery.^[18] The main specificity of this new series is that each denomination depicts a famous Turkish personality, rather than geographical sites and architectural features of Turkey.^[19] The dominant color of the 5-Turkish-lira banknote has been determined as "purple" on second series of current banknotes.^[20]

Current Turkish lira banknotes
Image		Value	Dimensions (mm)	Main Colour		Description			Date of issue
Obverse	Reverse					Obverse	Reverse	Watermark
		5	130 × 64		Brown	Mustafa Kemal Atatürk	Aydın Sayılı: solar system, atom, ancient cave, left-handed Z-DNA helix.	Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Value	1 January 2009
					Purple				8 April 2013
		10	136 × 64		Red		Cahit Arf: Arf invariant, arithmetic series, abacus, binary sequence		1 January 2009
		20	142 × 68		Green		Architect Kemaleddin: Gazi University main building, aqueduct, circular motif and cube-globe-cylinder symbolizing architecture
		50	148 × 68		Orange		Fatma Aliye Topuz: flower and literary figures
		100	154 × 72		Blue		Buhurizade Itri: musical notes, instruments and Mevlevi figure
		200	160 × 72		Violet		Yunus Emre: Yunus's mausoleum, rose, pigeon and the line "Sevelim, sevilelim" (Let us love, let us be loved)
These images are to scale at 0.7 pixels per millimetre.

Exchange rates

Most traded currencies by value
Currency distribution of global foreign exchange market turnover^[21][22]

Rank	Currency	ISO 4217 code (Symbol)	% daily share (April 2013)
1	United States dollar	USD ($)	87.0%
2	Euro	EUR (€)	33.4%
3	Japanese yen	JPY (¥)	23.0%
4	Pound sterling	GBP (£)	11.8%
5	Australian dollar	AUD ($)	8.6%
6	Swiss franc	CHF (Fr)	5.2%
7	Canadian dollar	CAD ($)	4.6%
8	Mexican peso	MXN ($)	2.5%
9	Chinese yuan	CNY (¥)	2.2%
10	New Zealand dollar	NZD ($)	2.0%
11	Swedish krona	SEK (kr)	1.8%
12	Russian ruble	RUB (₽)	1.6%
13	Hong Kong dollar	HKD ($)	1.4%
14	Norwegian krone	NOK (kr)	1.4%
15	Singapore dollar	SGD ($)	1.4%
16	Turkish lira	TRY (₺)	1.3%
17	South Korean won	KRW (₩)	1.2%
18	South African rand	ZAR (R)	1.1%
19	Brazilian real	BRL (R$)	1.1%
20	Indian rupee	INR (₹)	1.0%
21	Danish krone	DKK (kr.)	1.0%
22	Israeli new shekel	ILS (₪)	1.0%
Other			8.3%
Total[23]			200%

The yearly average exchange rate of the lira was as follows:

• 2005 – 1 U.S. dollar = 1.29 new Turkish lira (The use of New Turkish lira, which drops 6 zeros from the currency Turkish lira, was implemented in 2005)
• 2010 – 1 U.S. dollar = 1.55 Turkish lira
• 2012 – 1 U.S. dollar = 1.80 Turkish lira (average)
• 2014 – 1 U.S. dollar = 2.09 Turkish lira (average)

Current TRY exchange rates
From Google Finance:	AUD CAD CHF EUR GBP HKD JPY USD INR CNY
From Yahoo! Finance:	AUD CAD CHF EUR GBP HKD JPY USD INR CNY
From XE:	AUD CAD CHF EUR GBP HKD JPY USD INR CNY
From OANDA:	AUD CAD CHF EUR GBP HKD JPY USD INR CNY
From fxtop.com:	AUD CAD CHF EUR GBP HKD JPY USD INR CNY
From Currency.Wiki:	AUD CAD CHF EUR GBP HKD JPY USD INR CNY

See also

• Economy of Turkey
• Economy of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
• Banknotes of Turkey
• Coins of Turkey
• Turkish lira sign
• Ottoman lira

Notes

References

Further reading

• Krause, Chester L., and Clifford Mishler (1991). Standard Catalog of World Coins: 1801–1991 (18th ed.). Krause Publications. ISBN 0873411501. 
• Pick, Albert (1994). Standard Catalog of World Paper Money: General Issues. Colin R. Bruce II and Neil Shafer (editors) (7th ed.). Krause Publications. ISBN 0-87341-207-9. 
• Sevket Pamuk (2000). A Monetary History of the Ottoman Empire. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-44197-8. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Money of Turkey.

• Turkish Central Bank (Banknote Museum page)
• Turkish State Mint
• Turkish lira official changeover Campaign
• Detailed information on the Turkish lira banknotes and coins in circulation since 2009
• Turk Numismatics

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