Old Turkish lira
Until 2005 the Turkish currency was the Türk Lirasi ((TL, ISO 4217: TRL), also called the lira; it was often referred to as the Turkish lira outside Turkey, to avoid confusion with the better-known (former) Italian money. It was originally divided into 100 kurus, each of which were in turn divided into 40 para.

Before the lira, the monetary unit used by the Ottoman Empire was first the akçe, later to be replaced by the kurus (piastre), with the para as a subunit. Having begun as a large silver coin, by the late 1800s the kurus had shrunk to a small silver coin which equated to one hundredth of a gold lira.

The Banque Imperiale Ottomane (Imperial Ottoman Bank) first issued paper currency denominated in kurus, with values ranging from 5 to 5000 kurus. The denomination switched from kurus to lira in the mid 1870s. Denominations ranged from 5 kurus to 1000 lira, with the 50,000-lira banknote specially prepared to fund the issue of small change (1- and 2.5-kurus) notes.

World War I saw Turkey effectively depart from the gold standard with the gold lira being worth about nine lira in paper money by the early 1920s.

The Turkish Republic replaced the older imperial Ottoman paper liras with the Turkish lira being reissued as a mid size silver coin. Turkish lira notes were also introduced in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 lira. Each note carried the portrait of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

After Ataturk's death in 1938, new notes were prepared with the portrait of President Ismet Inonu. Ataturk reappeared on a subsequent series of notes in the early 1950s.

Chronic inflation from the late 1970s saw the Turkish lira gradually depreciate against other major currencies.

• 1933 — 1 U.S. dollar = 2 Turkish lira
  
• 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 Turkish lira slid in value to such an extent that one original gold lira coin could be sold for approximately 120,000,000 Turkish lira prior to the 2005 revaluation.

In its last few years the Turkish lira stabilised and even rose against the U.S. dollar and the euro. In December 2004, it traded at about 1,350,000 lira to 1 U.S. dollar, and about 1,850,000 lira per euro. The Guinness Book of Records ranked the lira as the world's least valuable currency.

A portrait of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk appears on all Turkish banknotes and coins. Reverse designs of banknotes vary. Present denominations include:

Banknotes

500,000 lira — purple — Canakkale Dardanelles (Anzac) Campaign Memorial

• 1,000,000 lira — pink and blue — Atatürk Dam, largest of all dams making up the Southeastern Anatolia Project
  
• 5,000,000 lira — brown — Atatürk Mausoleum in Ankara.
  
• 10,000,000 lira — red — Cartographer Piri Reis' map and ship.
  
• 20,000,000 lira — green — Ruins of Ephesus.

Coins

• 50,000 lira
  
• 100,000 lira
  
• 250,000 lira