Lira is the name of several

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 ...

units. It is the current currency of Turkey and also the local name of the currencies of Lebanon and of

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

. It is also the name of several former currencies, including those of

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

Malta Malta, officially the Republic of Malta, is an island country in Southern Europe located in the Mediterranean Sea, between Sicily and North Africa. It consists of an archipelago south of Italy, east of Tunisia, and north of Libya. The two ...

and

Israel Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in West Asia. It Borders of Israel, shares borders with Lebanon to the north, Syria to the north-east, Jordan to the east, Egypt to the south-west, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. Isr ...

. The term originates from the value of a Roman pound (, about 329g, 10.58 troy ounces) of high purity silver. The was the basis of the monetary system of the Roman Empire. When Europe resumed a monetary system, during the

Carolingian Empire The Carolingian Empire (800–887) was a Franks, Frankish-dominated empire in Western and Central Europe during the Early Middle Ages. It was ruled by the Carolingian dynasty, which had ruled as List of Frankish kings, kings of the Franks since ...

, the Roman system was adopted. The Roman denominations were used (becoming known in England as £sd). Specifically, this system was kept during the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

and Modern Age in England, France, and Italy. In each of these countries the was translated into local language: pound in England, in France, in Italy. The Venetian lira was one of the currencies in use in Italy and due to the economic power of the Venetian Republic a popular currency in the Eastern Mediterranean trade. During the 19th century, the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

and the Eyalet of Egypt adopted the as their national currency, equivalent to 100 piasters or kuruş. When the Ottoman Empire collapsed between 1918 and 1922, many of the successor states retained the lira as their national currency. In some countries, such as

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

, which have belonged to both the Ottoman Empire and the British Empire, the words ''lira'' and '' pound'' are used interchangeably.

Lira sign

For the

Turkish lira 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 ...

, the Turkish lira sign () is used. The Lebanese lira uses (before numerals) or (after numerals) in

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

and in

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

. The Syrian lira uses (before numerals) or (after numerals) in

and in Arabic. 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 ...

had no official sign, but the abbreviations and and the symbols (two bars), (one bar) were all commonly used. The Maltese lira used before 1986 and thereafter (both as prefixes), though £M continued to be used in unofficial capacities. The

Unicode Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...

system allocated to the

, to provide compatibility with a legacy HP character set. As with , where the one-bar and the two-bar versions are treated as

allograph In graphemics and typography, the term allograph is used of a glyph that is a design variant of a letter or other grapheme, such as a letter, a number, an ideograph, a punctuation mark or other typographic symbol. In graphemics, an obvious exa ...

s and the choice between them is merely stylistic, no evidence has been found that either style predominated in Italy or anywhere else.

Current uses

Turkey

The

was introduced in 1844 during the Ottoman reign. The Turkish lira is now the currency of Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and used in Turkish-occupied northern Syria.

Lebanon and Syria

The Lebanese pound and Syrian pound are both called "lira" () in

, the national language of both Lebanon and Syria.

Historic use

Italy

The lira was the currency of Italy from its unification until it was merged into 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 ...

in 1999. A unit of currency lira had previously been used in some of the states and possessions that became Italy but their values were not necessarily equivalent. (See Luccan lira, Papal lira, Parman lira, Sardinian lira and Tuscan lira.)

Former currencies named lira

* Cypriot lira/pound 1879–2007; merged into the

, 2008 * French livre 781–1794; became the French franc * Israeli lira/pound 1948–1980; replaced by the old shekel in 1980. *

1861–2002; merged into the

, 1999 (notes and coins from 2002) * Italian East African lira 1938–1941; supplanted by the

East African shilling The East African shilling was the Pound sterling, sterling unit of account in British Empire, British-controlled areas of East Africa from 1921 until 1969. It was issued by the East African Currency Board. It is also the proposed name for a com ...

* Italian Somaliland lira 1925–1926; replaced by the Italian East African lira * Luccan lira until 1800 and 1826–1847; merged into the Italian lira * Maltese lira 1825–2007; merged into the

, 2008 * Neapolitan lira 1812–1813; merged into the Italian lira * Ottoman lira 1844–1923; became the Turkish lira * Papal lira 1866–1870; became the Vatican lira at par with the Italian lira * Parman lira before 1802 and 1815–1859; merged into the Italian lira * Sammarinese lira 1860s–2002; merged into the euro * Sardinian lira 1816–1861; merged into the Italian lira * Tripolitanian lira 1943–1951; replaced by the Libyan pound * Tuscan lira until 1807 and 1814–1826; merged into the Italian lira * Vatican lira 1929–2002; merged into the euro * Venetian lira 1472–1807; merged into the Italian lira

References

External links

Overview of Italian lira from the BBC
{{coord, 2, 14, N, 32, 54, E, type:city_source:kolossus-rowiki, display=title Currencies of Europe Currencies of Italy Currencies of Malta Currencies of San Marino Currencies of Vatican City Pound (currency)