During pre-Ottoman Turkey there were multiple currencies and coinage used as to not affect the volume of trade that was taking place. In 1984 1900 silver coins were found as a result of an unlawful excavation of ElmalI coins, which consisted of over a thousand coins that were not known previous to that date. It just goes to show how many different coins actually existed in these regions. These coins were attempted to be auctioned off at various locations including Los Angeles and Zurich but the Turkish government seized these coins. As of now, these coins were considered the Turkish treasure of the century which is why the Turkish government fought for them so much.
The issuance of banknotes beings with the Reform Era the Tazimat. Metal coins were used but this changed around 1839 when the banknotes were produced in Abdulmecit in 1839. What’s comical is that these were not exactly banknotes but rather bonds that accumulated interest. There were various other dynasty that had banknotes but it was ultimately the Ottoman Bank that first introduced 5, 10, 30 and 50 kurush bore. The Arabic script was used for the first set of banknotes.
The republican Era Banknotes were issued on January 15th 1925 in which it issued banknotes of 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 lira. The old bank notes from the Ottoman Banks were the Evrak-I Nakidye and the Republic of Turkey transfered the current circulation over to the National Bank to preserve cultural continuity. Now these lira is used and still with in circulation. There are even notes as large as 1 million and five million. More importantly, one would think massive amounts of inflation would occur. On Janurary 1st, 2005 six zeros were dropped from the Turkish lira that erased the effect of several decades of inflation.
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