The lira (;

sign A sign is an object, quality, event, or entity whose presence or occurrence indicates the probable presence or occurrence of something else. A natural sign bears a causal relation to its object—for instance, thunder is a sign of storm, or me ...

₺ The lira (; Currency sign, sign: Turkish lira sign, ₺; ISO 4217, ISO 4217 code: TRY; abbreviation: TL) is the official currency of Turkey. It is also legal tender in the ''de facto'' state of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. One lira i ...

; ISO 4217 code: TRY; abbreviation: TL) is the official

currency A currency is a standardization of money in any form, in use or circulation as a medium of exchange, for example banknotes and coins. A more general definition is that a currency is a ''system of money'' in common use within a specific envi ...

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

. It is also legal tender in the '' de facto'' state of the

Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus Northern Cyprus, officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), is a '' de facto'' state that comprises the northeastern portion of the island of Cyprus. It is recognised only by Turkey, and its territory is considered by all o ...

. One lira is divided into one hundred ''

kuruş Kuruş ( ; ), also gurush, ersh, gersh, grush, grosha, and grosi, are all names for currency denominations in and around the territories formerly part of the Ottoman Empire. The variation in the name stems from the different languages it is us ...

''. The current lira is the Second Turkish lira, having succeeded the first Turkish lira in 2005 which in turn succeeded the

Ottoman lira The pound or lira (sign: LT; ; ; ; ; ) was the currency of the Ottoman Empire from 1844 until 1927, when it was replaced by the Turkish lira. Although the Ottoman Empire was abolished in 1922, the Ottoman lira remained in circulation until the ...

in 1923. Since 2018 the Turkish lira has been in crisis, having plummeted in value following Turkish president Erdogan's economic and political policies.

History

Ottoman lira (1844–1923)

The lira, along with the related currencies of Europe and the Middle East, has its roots in the

ancient Roman In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

unit of weight known as the

libra Libra generally refers to: * Libra (constellation), a constellation * Libra (astrology), an astrological sign based on the star constellation Libra may also refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Libra'' (novel), a 1988 novel by Don DeLillo Musi ...

which referred to the

Troy pound Troy weight is a system of Physical unit, units of mass that originated in the Kingdom of England in the 15th century and is primarily used in the precious metals industry. The troy weight units are the Grain (unit), grain, the pennyweight (24 ...

of silver. The Roman libra adoption of the currency spread it throughout Europe and the Near East, where it continued to be used into medieval times. The Turkish lira, the

French livre The livre (abbreviation: Pound sign, £ or Livre tournois, ₶., French language, French for (pound)) was the currency of Kingdom of France and its predecessor states of Francia and West Francia from 781 to 1794. Several different livres exist ...

(until 1794), the

Italian lira The lira ( , ; : lire, , ) was the currency of Italy between 1861 and 2002. It was introduced by the Kingdom of Italy (Napoleonic), Napoleonic Kingdom of Italy in 1807 at par with the French franc, and was subsequently adopted by the different s ...

(until 2002),

Lebanese pound The lira or pound is the currency of Lebanon. It was formerly divided into 100 piastres (or ''qirsh'' in Arabic) but, because of high inflation during the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990), subunits were discontinued. The plural of lira is eithe ...

and the pound unit of account in sterling (a translation of the Latin ''libra''; the word "pound" as a unit of weight is still abbreviated as "lb.") are the modern descendants of the ancient currency. The

lira Lira is the name of several currency units. It is the current Turkish lira, currency of Turkey and also the local name of the Lebanese pound, currencies of Lebanon and of Syrian pound, Syria. It is also the name of several former currencies, ...

was introduced as the main unit of account in 1844, with the former currency,

, remaining as a subdivision. The Ottoman lira remained in circulation until the end of 1927.

First Turkish lira (1923–2005)

The banknotes of the

first First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

and second issue depict ''

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Mustafa Kemal Atatürk ( 1881 – 10 November 1938) was a Turkish field marshal and revolutionary statesman who was the founding father of the Republic of Turkey, serving as its first President of Turkey, president from 1923 until Death an ...

'' on the obverse side. This change was done according to the 12 January 1926 issue of the

official gazette A government gazette (also known as an official gazette, official journal, official newspaper, official monitor or official bulletin) is a periodical publication that has been authorised to publish public or legal notices. It is usually establish ...

. After Atatürk's death, his portrait was replaced with one of

İsmet İnönü Mustafa İsmet İnönü (24 September 1884 – 25 December 1973) was a Turkish politician and military officer who served as the second List of Presidents of Turkey, president of Turkey from 1938 to 1950, and as its Prime Minister of Turkey, pr ...

for the

third Third or 3rd may refer to: Numbers * 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3 * , a fraction of one third * 1⁄60 of a ''second'', i.e., the third in a series of fractional parts in a sexagesimal number system Places * 3rd Street (di ...

and fourth issues. Atatürk returned for the fifth issue and all subsequent issues. After periods of the lira pegged to sterling and the

franc The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th century ...

, a peg of TL 2.8 = US$1 was adopted in 1946 and maintained until 1960, when the currency was devalued to TL 9 = US$1. From 1970, a series of hard, then soft pegs to the dollar operated as the value of the Turkish lira began to fall. The following are based on yearly averages: * 1960s: US$1 = TL 9 * 1970: US$1 = TL 11.30 * 1975: US$1 = TL 14.40 * 1980: US$1 = TL 80 * 1985: US$1 = TL 500 * 1990: US$1 = TL 2,500 * 1995: US$1 = TL 43,000 * 2000: US$1 = TL 620,000 * 2001: US$1 = TL 1,250,000 * 2005: US$1 = TL 1,350,000 The ''

Guinness Book of Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

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

revaluation Revaluation is a change in a price of a good or product, or especially of a currency, in which case it is specifically an official rise of the value of the currency in relation to a foreign currency in a fixed exchange rate system. In contrast, ...

Second Turkish lira (2005–present)

On 28 January 2004, the

Grand National Assembly of Turkey The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( ), usually referred to simply as the GNAT or TBMM, also referred to as , in Turkish, is the Unicameralism, unicameral Turkey, Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by ...

passed a law that allowed for

redenomination In monetary economics, redenomination is the process of changing the face value of banknotes and coins in circulation. It may be done because inflation has made the currency unit so small that only large denominations of the currency are in cir ...

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 YTL 1 ( ISO 4217 code "TRY") = TL 1,000,000 in old lira (ISO 4217 code "TRL"). With the revaluation of the Turkish lira, the

Romanian leu The Romanian leu (, plural lei ; ISO code: RON; numeric code: 946) is the currency of Romania. It is subdivided into 100 (, singular: ), a word that also means "money" in the Romanian language. Etymology The name of the currency means "lio ...

(also revalued in July 2005) briefly became the world's least valued currency unit. At the same time, the Government introduced two new banknotes with the denominations of ₺50 and ₺100. In the transition period between January 2005 and December 2008, the second Turkish lira was officially called ''Yeni Türk lirası'' ("New Turkish lira"). The letter "Y" in the currency code was taken from the Turkish word , meaning ''new''. It was officially abbreviated "YTL" and subdivided into 100 new (). 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 have portraits of

. The reverse sides of all coins (except for ₺1 commemorative coins) have portraits of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Since 2012, 9 different ₺1 circulating commemorative coins were introduced.

2018–present currency crisis

In 2018, the lira's exchange rate deteriorated rapidly, reaching ₺4.5 per US dollar by mid-May and ₺4.9 a week later. Economists generally attributed the accelerating loss of value to

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister of Turkey, prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Jus ...

preventing the

Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey The Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye (CBRT) () is the central bank of Turkey. Its responsibilities include conducting monetary and exchange rate policy, managing international reserves of Turkey, as well as printing and issuing banknotes ...

from making necessary interest rate adjustments. Erdoğan, who claimed interest rates beyond his control to be "the mother and father of all evil", stated that "the central bank can't take this independence and set aside the signals given by the president." Despite Erdoğan's apparent opposition, Turkey's Central Bank raised interest rates sharply. As of 2020, the Turkish lira lowered in value, with the currency going through a process of

depreciation In accountancy, depreciation refers to two aspects of the same concept: first, an actual reduction in the fair value of an asset, such as the decrease in value of factory equipment each year as it is used and wears, and second, the allocation i ...

, consistently reaching all-time lows. The Turkish lira deflated by over 400% compared to the

US dollar The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

and the

euro The euro (currency symbol, symbol: euro sign, €; ISO 4217, currency code: EUR) is the official currency of 20 of the Member state of the European Union, member states of the European Union. This group of states is officially known as the ...

since 2008, largely due to Erdoğan's

expansionist Expansionism refers to states obtaining greater territory through military empire-building or colonialism. In the classical age of conquest moral justification for territorial expansion at the direct expense of another established polity (who ...

foreign policy. Erdoğan has tried to fix the financial crisis with unorthodox banking methods. The Turkish lira partially recovered in early 2021 with the government's increase in interest rates. However, the currency began to crash due to

inflation In economics, inflation is an increase in the average price of goods and services in terms of money. This increase is measured using a price index, typically a consumer price index (CPI). When the general price level rises, each unit of curre ...

and

starting on 21 March 2021, after the sacking of Central Bank chief Naci Ağbal. The Turkish lira reached a then-all-time-low of ₺8.8 to the dollar on 4 June. The Turkish lira became one of the quickest collapsing currencies of 2021. The Turkish lira reached a new low of ₺8.9 to the dollar in September 2021. In late 2021, the Turkish lira began collapsing rapidly, with the exchange rate falling 9% against the US dollar, reaching an all-time low of ₺12.5 to the dollar. The Turkish lira continued to collapse in December, with the

inflation rate In economics, inflation is an increase in the average price of goods and services in terms of money. This increase is measured using a price index, typically a consumer price index (CPI). When the general price level rises, each unit of curre ...

reaching unseen levels, collapsing to ₺14.5 to the US Dollar, losing nearly all of its original value. On 17 December, the lira fell by 8.5%, raising the

exchange rate In finance, an exchange rate is the rate at which one currency will be exchanged for another currency. Currencies are most commonly national currencies, but may be sub-national as in the case of Hong Kong or supra-national as in the case of ...

to ₺16.5 to the US dollar. Despite the currency collapse, Erdoğan lowered interest rates down to 14% from 15%, causing the lira to lose half of its value since the start of 2021. The Turkish Lira continued to decline throughout 2022. The

central bank A central bank, reserve bank, national bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages the monetary policy of a country or monetary union. In contrast to a commercial bank, a central bank possesses a monopoly on increasing the mo ...

governor

Şahap Kavcıoğlu Şahap Kavcıoğlu (born 23 May 1967) is a Turkish banker and politician. He was a Member of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey for the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and was the Governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey from ...

lowered interest rates by 150 basis points, from 12% to 10.5%, down from the 2021 low of 15%. The official inflation rate of the Lira through 2022 reached 83%, but independent reviews of the Turkish lira put the inflation rate even higher. In 2023, Erdoğan began to follow orthodox banking methods. Under the guidance of

Mehmet Şimşek Mehmet Şimşek (born 1 January 1967) is a Turkish politician and economist, who has been serving as the List of Finance Ministers of Turkey, Minister of Treasury and Finance since 4 June 2023. He was the Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey from 24 ...

and

Hafize Gaye Erkan Hafize Gaye Erkan (born 1979, Istanbul) is the former governor of the Central Bank of Turkey. She is a former co-CEO and president of First Republic Bank and was a member of the company's board of directors. She is the former Chief executive of ...

, the central bank began to rapidly increase interest rates. By the end of the year, the interest rate stood at 42.5%, and the annual inflation rate decreased to 53.86%, down from 83% in 2022. The central bank increased the interest rate to 50% in March 2024 under Fatih Karahan, the new governor, and has kept it as such as for eight consecutive months. This has resulted in the lira gaining value since May, when inflation peaked at 75.45%, but has decreased to 47.09% in November. Many investors have regained trust in the

. Following the arrest of the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, in March 2025,

Marketwatch ''MarketWatch'' is a website that provides financial information, business news, analysis, and stock market data. It is a subsidiary of Dow Jones & Company, a property of News Corp, along with ''The Wall Street Journal'' and '' Barron's.'' ...

reported that the Turkish lira reached a record low.

Coins

From 1 January 2009, the prefix "new" was removed from the second Turkish lira, its official name in Turkey becoming "Turkish lira" again; new coins without the word "''yeni''" were introduced in denominations of 1kr., 5kr., 10kr., 25kr., 50kr. and ₺1. Also, the center and ring alloys of the 50kr. and ₺1 coins were reversed.

Circulating commemorative coins

Since 2012, the Turkish State Mint has introduced nine commemorative coins in circulation. File:1TL Sayıştay 150th reverse.png, 150th anniversary of Court of Accounts (2012) File:1TL Turkish Olympics reverse.png, 10th International Turkish Olympiad (2012) File:1TL July 15 reverse.png, Commemorative coin for martyrs and veterans of July 15th (2016) File:1TL Hagia Sophia reverse.png, Commemoration of

Hagia Sophia Hagia Sophia (; ; ; ; ), officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque (; ), is a mosque and former Church (building), church serving as a major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The last of three church buildings to be successively ...

's reversion to mosque (2020) File:Gaziantep hatıra parası.png, 100th year of honoring Antep province with the ghazi title (2021) * 2018: Commemoration of inauguration ceremony of the

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

* 2020: 100th anniversary of

* 2022: Commemoration of the opening ceremony of

1915 Çanakkale Bridge The 1915 Çanakkale Bridge () is a road suspension bridge in the province of Çanakkale Province, Çanakkale in northwestern Turkey. Situated just south of the coastal towns of Lapseki and Gelibolu, the bridge spans the Dardanelles, about sout ...

* 2022: 100th anniversary of the

Great Offensive The Great Offensive () was the largest and final military operation of the Turkish War of Independence, fought between the Turkish Armed Forces loyal to the government of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, and the Kingdom of Greece, ending ...

* 2023: 100th years of the republic (5 lira)

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 denomination. The new banknotes have different sizes to prevent forgery. 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. The dominant color of the 5-Turkish-lira banknote has been determined as "purple" on the second series of the current banknotes.

Currency sign

The lira was originally symbolised as TL, inverting the characters of the Ottoman lira's sign, LT, which stood for "" in French. Historically English language sources used "£T" or "T£" for the currency, but it is unknown whether this notation was ever used within Turkey. The current currency sign of Turkish lira was created by the

in 2012. The new sign was selected after a country-wide contest. The new symbol is composed of the letter ''L'' shaped like a half anchor, and embedded double-striped letter ''T'' angled at 20 degrees. The design, created by Tülay Lale, was endorsed after a country-wide competition. It was chosen as the winner from a shortlist of seven submissions to the board of the Central Bank, selected from a total of 8,362 entries. The symbol resembles the first letter of the Turkish monetary unit, ''L'', in the form of a half

anchor An anchor is a device, normally made of metal, used to secure a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the craft from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ', which itself comes from the Greek (). Anch ...

with double stroke. Prime Minister

announced the new symbol on 1 March 2012. At its unveiling, Erdoğan explained the design as "the anchor shape hopes to convey that the currency is a 'safe harbour' while the upward-facing lines represent its rising prestige". Faik Öztrak, vice chairman of the main opposition party CHP, alleged that the new sign resembles the initials ''TE'' of then-prime minister Tayyip Erdoğan in a reference to the

tughra A tughra (; ) is a calligraphy, calligraphic monogram, Seal (emblem), seal or signature of a sultan that was affixed to all official documents and correspondence. Inspired by the Tamga, tamgha, it was also carved on his seal and stamped on the co ...

of Ottoman sultans. The new Turkish lira sign was also criticized for allegedly showing a similarity with an upside-down Armenian dram sign. In May 2012, the

Unicode Technical Committee The Unicode Consortium (legally Unicode, Inc.) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization incorporated and based in Mountain View, California, Mountain View, California, U.S. Its primary purpose is to maintain and publish the Unicode Standard which ...

accepted the encoding of a new character for the currency sign, which was included in Unicode 6.2 released in September 2012. On

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...

s, when using Turkish-Q or Turkish-F

keyboard layout A keyboard layout is any specific physical, visual, or functional arrangement of the keys, legends, or key-meaning associations (respectively) of a computer keyboard, mobile phone, or other computer-controlled typographic keyboard. Standard keybo ...

s, it can be typed with the combination .

Circulation

Current exchange rates

Notes

References

External links

Turkish Central Bank (Banknote Museum page)

TL Simge
��Turkish lira sign page of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey website
Detailed information on the Turkish lira banknotes and coins in circulation since 2009

Turk Numismatics

Turkish Lira Today

Turkey Banknotes Catalog , Turkish Lira since 1923

{{DEFAULTSORT:Turkish Lira Banknotes of Turkey

Lira Lira is the name of several currency units. It is the current Turkish lira, currency of Turkey and also the local name of the Lebanese pound, currencies of Lebanon and of Syrian pound, Syria. It is also the name of several former currencies, ...

Currency symbols Economy of Northern Cyprus Economy of the Ottoman Empire History of the Republic of Turkey Currencies of Asia Circulating currencies Currencies of Europe Pound (currency)