Turkish lira

The lira (Türk lirası; sign: ₺; ISO 4217 code: TRY; abbreviation: TL) is the official currency of Turkey and Northern Cyprus. One lira is divided into one hundred kuruş. Ottoman lira The lira, along with the related currencies of Europe and the Middle East, has its roots in the ancient Roman unit of weight known as the libra which referred to the Troy pound 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 (until 1794), the Italian lira (until 2002), Lebanese pound 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 was introduced as the main unit of account in 1844, with the former currency, kuruş, remaining as a subdivision. The Ottoman lira remained in circulation until the end of 1927. The banknotes of the first and second issue depict Mustafa Kemal Atatürk on the obverse side. This change was done according to the 12 January 1926 issue of the official gazette. After Atatürk's death, his portrait was replaced with one of İsmet İnönü for the third and fourth issues. Atatürk returned for the fifth issue and all subsequent issues. After periods of the lira pegged to sterling and the franc, 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 ranked the Turkish lira as the world's least valuable currency in 1995 and 1996, and again from 1999 to 2004.