The History of Money in Turkey

Sevtap DUMAN

The History of Money in Turkey 

In retrospect, Turkey has had a long history of using money. Regions of land have effected the development so that as time went by, the currency in Turkey has changed. The country first used gold; a much later the Turkish Lira was used and banknotes were introduced.

Turkey lies in Mesopotamia, where the Lydians used the first coins. Lydia was a kingdom located on Manisa, which is one of the Turkey’s modern cities. It was an Iron Aged kingdom where they invented coins around 660 BCE. Eventually in the Ottoman Empire, Sultan Mehmet the Conqueror established the biggest mint in Istanbul around 1476 CE. He wanted a golden coin with his picture on it. The mint has been renovated now, and when it opens, it will be one of the most technological mints in the world.

After the Ottoman Empire, the lira was introduced in 1844. In those days, the hierarchy of money was gold, silver and copper. Wealthy people, those people who wanted to save money used gold liras. It was the proof of their wealth. Silver kurus was the coin for the middle class. Copper para had the least value, that is, 40 para was equal to 1 kurus and 100 kurus was equal to 1 lira. After 1923, the Latin alphabet was used on the coins.

Finally, the first banknotes were used in 1862. On those banknotes were Turkish and French words in Arabic script. After 1937, only Turkish words were used. Each note carried a picture of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey. By time higher denomination notes were introduced, the Turkish Lira reached its zenith having 6 to 8 zeros on the banknotes. However, the government decided to ignore last 6 of them because of inflation and minted New Turkish Liras without zeros at the end of the numbers. At this point, 1 000 000 Turkish Lira became 1 New Turkish Lira.

Turkey’s monetary development has a long, famous history because of its region. At first, they used gold coins then minted banknotes, and finally the Turkish Lira, which was changed to New Turkish Lira. As in other countries, of the currency of Turkey will continue to change as the country develops. (383)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia#Geography

http://www.darphane.gov.tr/dizayn-ehistory.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_lira