Money

The money used in Turkey is the Turkish Lira. You may hear references to the old Turkish Lira and the new Turkish Lira; this is because a few years back Turkey dropped six zeros from its money and for one year, both the old and the new banknotes were in circulation, hence the old and new Turkish Lira. The old banknotes are no longer valid, and so now the money is known once again, simply as the Lira or Turkish Lira.

Turkish money comes both in coins, and in banknotes. The coins are denominations of 1 Lira (called kurush, 100 kurush make 1 Lira); there are 1, 5, 10, 25, and 50 kurush coins and 1 Lira coins. The 1 kurush coins are very rare; don’t be surprised if you never see an actual one! Turkish Lira banknotes are in the 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, and 200 Lira denominations. For visuals, please see this link from the website of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey.

For the latest exchange rates, simply access any online currency converter, for instance http://www.xe.com/ucc/. Be warned that you never get the interbank rate in exchange shops, but you will invariably get a better rate in Turkey than you will in the UK.