The Turkish lira is made up of 100 kuruş and comes in units of 5, 10, 25 and 50 kuruş coins, and 10, 20, 50, 100 and 200 notes. The time is long overdue for the return of a TL500 note but for political reasons that is unlikely to happen soon.
Those with long memories will recall that, like Italy, Turkey used to have a currency denominated in millions. Although this is long gone many locals in rural areas still confusingly refer to bir milyar lira (one million lira) when they mean simply one!
Although Turkey is still not part of the EU let alone of the eurozone many hotels in tourist areas, including İstanbul, charge in euros, infuriating if you are resident and have only lira. In parts of the south coast that are particularly popular with the British prices are often shown in pounds sterling. No matter what currency you have it’s worth checking if it will be accepted before exchanging it for lira. You can’t usually pay in euros in shops or cafes or on public transport.
In the early 2020s Turkey has been suffering from very high inflation (anything from 50% to more than 100% depending on who you ask). You may therefore think it wise to change relatively small sums of money into lira as you go along rather than changing a lot at the start of a holiday. Of course if you pay for everything with cards this will not be an issue, and paying with a card is acceptable in almost all shops and restaurants (with a caveat for American Express which is less readily acceptable). Touchless (temassiz) card-readers can be used to pay on buses if you don’t want to sign up for a transport card.
