Banknotes of Turkey

In 1926, the Ministry of Finance introduced notes for the Republic of Turkey in denominations of TL 1, TL 5, TL 10, TL 50, TL 100, TL 500 and TL 1,000. These were the last notes printed with both French and Turkish (in the Arabic script) texts on them. The TL 50, TL 100, TL 500 and TL 1,000 notes carried the portrait of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

TL 1,000 note of the Fifth Issue.

Reverse of the TL 20,000,000 banknote (replaced by the YTL 20 note)

Between 1937 and 1939, the Central Bank of Turkey introduced new notes with Turkish texts in the Latin script, again depicting Atatürk. this time on all denominations. After Atatürk's death the same design was recycled with İsmet İnönü replacing Atatürk's image. Denominations of TL 2½, TL 5, TL 10, TL 50, TL 100, TL 500 and TL 1,000 were issued. TL 1 notes were reintroduced in 1942, followed by 50 kuruş (TL 0.5) notes in 1944. These two lowest denominations were replaced by coins after the War.

Atatürk reappeared on a subsequent series of notes in the early 1950s. The TL 2½ notes were replaced by coins in 1960, with the same happening to the TL 5 and TL 10 notes in 1974 and 1981. Higher denomination notes were introduced during the 1980s and 90s: TL 5,000 in 1981, TL 10,000 in 1982, TL 20,000 in 1988, TL 50,000 in 1989, TL 100,000 in 1991, TL 250,000 in 1992, TL 500,000 in 1993, TL 1,000,000 in 1995, TL 5,000,000 in 1997, TL 10,000,000 in 1999, TL 20,000,000 in 2001 and TL 100,000,000 in 2009. The higher values of the "E7 Emission Group" banknotes (1992 TL 250,000 and later and higher value notes) were exchangeable for new lira at a rate of TL 1,000,000 to ₺1 at branches of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey until 31 December 2015, after which time they became worthless.^[1] The TL 50,000 note ceased to be redeemable on 4 November 2009, and the TL 100,000 note on 4 November 2011.^[2]

The First Issue (E1) Banknotes

Banknotes of 1st Emission
Image		Value TL	Dimensions (mm)	Main Colour		Description		Date of
Obverse	Reverse					Obverse	Reverse	issue	withdrawal
		1	166 × 90		Olive green	House of Parliament, Citadel of Ankara, a ploughing farmer	Former Building of Prime Ministry	5 December 1927	25 April 1939
		5	170 × 94		Dark blue	The Citadel of Ankara, a grey wolf and the House of Parliament	Akköprü		15 October 1937
		10	175 × 99		Lilac	The Citadel of Ankara, a grey wolf	The Citadel of Ankara		16 May 1938
		50	185 × 108		Brown, olive green	Mustafa Kemal Atatürk	Afyon		1 April 1938
		100	189 × 112		Olive green		A view of a village		1 March 1938
		500	194 × 120		Brown and yellow	Gökmedrese, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk	Sivas		15 June 1939
		1,000	201 × 124		Dark blue	Mustafa Kemal Atatürk	A view from the railroad to Sakarya
These images are to scale at 0.7 pixel per millimetre. For table standards, see the banknote specification table.

The Second Issue (E2) Banknotes

Banknotes of 2nd Emission
Image		Value TL	Dimensions (mm)	Main Colour				Description		Date of
Obverse	Reverse			Obverse		Reverse		Obverse	Reverse	issue	withdrawal
		0.5 (50 Kuruş)	125 × 55		Yellow and light green	Green and brown		İsmet İnönü	Former Head Office Building of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey	26 June 1944	1 August 1947
		1	135 × 60		Violet				Bosphorus	25 April 1942
		2½	145 × 65		Olive green			Mustafa Kemal Atatürk	Statue of Victory at Ulus Square	25 April 1939	15 July 1952
		5	155 × 70		Blue	Green			Security Monument	15 September 1937	10 November 1952
		10	165 × 75		Brick red				The Citadel of Ankara	16 May 1938	2 June 1952
		50	175 × 80		Violet				Angora goats	1 April 1938
		100	185 × 85		Dark brown				Dardanelles	1 March 1938	15 September 1942
		500	195 × 90		Olive green				Rumelihisarı	15 June 1939	24 April 1946
								İsmet İnönü		18 November 1940
		1,000	205 × 95		Slate blue			Mustafa Kemal Atatürk	Security Monument	15 June 1939
								İsmet İnönü		18 November 1940
These images are to scale at 0.7 pixel per millimetre. For table standards, see the banknote specification table.

The Third Issue (E3) Banknotes

Banknotes of 3rd Emission
Image		Value TL	Dimensions (mm)	Main Colour				Description		Date of
Obverse	Reverse			Obverse		Reverse		Obverse	Reverse	issue	withdrawal
		2½	145 × 65		Purple and brown			İsmet İnönü	Halkevleri	27 March 1947	15 July 1952
		10	155 × 65		Orange and beige				Three Turkish village women in local costumes	15 January 1942	1 April 1950
		50	175 × 80		Purple and green	Purple			Angora goats	25 April 1942	1 December 1951
					Blue and pink					17 February 1947
		100	175 × 75		Brown				A girl holding grapes	15 August 1942	25 April 1946
		500	185 × 85		Olive green				Students at the Technical School, Ankara	24 April 1946	15 April 1953
		1,000	195 × 95		Blue				Scouts
These images are to scale at 0.7 pixel per millimetre. For table standards, see the banknote specification table.

The Fourth Issue (E4) Banknotes

Banknotes of 4th Emission
Image		Value TL	Dimensions (mm)	Main Colour		Description		Date of
Obverse	Reverse					Obverse	Reverse	issue	withdrawal
		10	165 × 75		Red	İsmet İnönü	The Sultan Ahmed Fountain	17 February 1947	2 June 1952
					Light brown			15 September 1948
		100	181 × 83		Green		Rumelihisarı	18 July 1947	10 October 1952
These images are to scale at 0.7 pixel per millimetre. For table standards, see the banknote specification table.

The Fifth Issue (E5) Banknotes

Banknotes of 5th Emission
Image		Value TL	Dimensions (mm)	Main Colour				Description		Date of
Obverse	Reverse			Obverse		Reverse		Obverse	Reverse	issue	withdrawal
		2½	145 × 65		Reddish purple	Reddish purple		Mustafa Kemal Atatürk	Former Head Office Building of the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey	15 July 1952	20 October 1966
						Brown				3 January 1955
						Light red				1 July 1957
						Bright green				15 February 1960
		5	150 × 68		Blue	Blue			Three Turkish girls with hazelnut baskets	10 November 1952	8 January 1968
						Green				8 June 1959
						Blue				25 October 1961
										4 January 1965
		10	155 × 71		Green	Green			Mecidiye bridge	2 June 1952	4 July 1966
						Dark red				26 October 1953
						Brown				24 March 1958
						Green				25 April 1960
						Red				15 May 1961
						Green				2 January 1963
		50	160 × 74		Brown	Brown			Statue of Victory at Ulus Square	1 December 1951	7 May 1979
						Orange				2 February 1953
						Rose				15 October 1956
						Greyish green				1 October 1957
						Brown				15 February 1960
										1 June 1964
										2 August 1971
		100	170 × 80		Olive green				Gençlik Parkı	10 October 1952	12 April 1976
					Green	Greenish blue				2 July 1956
					Olive green					4 August 1958
										15 March 1962
										1 October 1964
					Light olive green					17 March 1969
		500	170 × 80		Brown				Sultan Ahmed Mosque, Obelix and Hippodrome	15 April 1953	1 September 1976
					Dark grey					16 February 1959
					Brown					1 December 1962
					Violet					3 June 1968
		1,000							Rumelihisarı	15 April 1953	7 May 1979
These images are to scale at 0.7 pixel per millimetre. For table standards, see the banknote specification table.

The Sixth Issue (E6) Banknotes

Banknotes of 6th Emission
Image		Value TL	Dimensions (mm)	Main Colour				Description		Date of
Obverse	Reverse			Obverse		Reverse		Obverse	Reverse	issue	withdrawal
		5	135 × 60		Purple			Mustafa Kemal Atatürk	Manavgat Waterfall	8 January 1968	16 May 1983
										20 September 1976
		10	140 × 65		Olive green				Maiden's Tower	4 July 1966	21 September 1981
										7 April 1975
		20	143 × 66		Light brown				Anıtkabir	15 June 1966	21 August 1987
										24 June 1974
										29 August 1979
										30 May 1983
		50	160 × 71		Brown	Light brown			The marble fountain in the rose garden in front of Yerevan Kiosk	9 April 1976
					Light brown					4 April 1983
		100	170 × 77		Green	Brown			Mount Ararat	15 May 1972	5 May 1986
										24 September 1979
										20 June 1983
		500	170 × 80		Olive green and blue				The Main gate of Istanbul University	1 September 1971	15 June 1984
										9 September 1974
		1 000	170 × 82		Violet				Bosphorus	29 May 1978	29 September 1986
										17 December 1979
										10 June 1981
These images are to scale at 0.7 pixel per millimetre. For table standards, see the banknote specification table.

The Seventh Issue (E7) Banknotes

The notes were given security features. The later versions of the TL 100,000, TL 250,000, TL 500,000 and TL 1,000,000 notes lost their colour-changing ink due to inflation.

Banknotes of 7th Emission
Image		Value TL	Dimensions (mm)	Main Colour				Description		Date of
Obverse	Reverse			Obverse		Reverse		Obverse	Reverse	issue	withdrawal
		10	122 × 55		Pink and olive green			Mustafa Kemal Atatürk	A group of young students giving flowers to Atatürk	25 December 1979	21 August 1987
										15 November 1982
		100	131 × 63		Purple and brown				The Citadel of Ankara, Mehmet Akif Ersoy, and his home in Ankara, the first two quatrains of İstiklâl Marşı	26 December 1983	21 August 1989
										17 September 1984
		500	140 × 72		Blue				İzmir Clock Tower	1 July 1983
										21 May 1984
		1,000			Violet				Mehmed the Conqueror with old Istanbul skyline	31 March 1986	3 August 1992
										19 February 1988
		5,000			Brown, orange and blue				Mevlana Mausoleum and a figure of Mevlana	2 November 1981	31 January 1994
			146 × 72		Brown and green					29 July 1985
										13 June 1988
									Afşin-Elbistan thermal power station	28 May 1990
		10,000 (YTL 0.01)			Purple and green	Green			Mimar Sinan and his work of art Selimiye Mosque	25 October 1982	15 December 1995
										13 April 1984
										24 January 1989
										22 February 1993
		20,000 (YTL 0.02)	152 × 76		Claret red	Violet			New Head Office Building of the Central Bank of Turkey	9 May 1988	9 September 1997
					Yellow and orange					3 April 1995
		50,000 (YTL 0.05)			Green	Green			House of Parliament	15 May 1989	5 November 1999
						Green and dark grey				20 February 1995
		100,000 (YTL 0.1)	158 × 76		Brown and green			Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, statue of Atatürk in Samsun	A group of young students giving flowers to Atatürk	11 November 1991	5 November 2001
										15 July 1994
										12 August 1996
		250,000 (YTL 0.25)			Blue			Mustafa Kemal Atatürk	Kızıl Kule	2 October 1992	1 January 2006
										2 October 1995
										16 March 1998
		500,000 (YTL 0.5)	160 × 76		Purple				Çanakkale Martyrs' Memorial	18 March 1993
										16 May 1994
										26 August 1994
					Purple	Violet				10 October 1997
		1,000,000 (YTL 1)			Claret red and blue				Atatürk Dam	16 January 1995
										9 September 1996
										10 January 2002
		5,000,000 (YTL 5)	162 × 76		Pastel yellow and greenish brown				Anıtkabir	6 January 1997
		10,000,000 (YTL 10)			Red				Piri Reis Map	5 November 1999
		20,000,000 (YTL 20)			Green				Ephesus	5 November 2001
These images are to scale at 0.7 pixel per millimetre. For table standards, see the banknote specification table.

The Eighth Issue (E8) Banknotes

In the transitional period between 1 January 2005 and 31 December 2008, the second Turkish lira was officially called "new Turkish lira" (abbr: YTL) in Turkey. Banknotes, referred to by the Central Bank as the "E-8 Emission Group", were introduced in 2005 in denominations of YTL 1, YTL 5, YTL 10, YTL 20, YTL 50, and YTL 100. Whilst the lower four denominations replaced older notes and used very similar designs, the YTL 50 and YTL 100 notes did not have equivalents in the old currency. All notes depict Mustafa Kemal Atatürk from different points of his life and images of various historical and otherwise important buildings and places in Turkey.

Banknotes of 8th Emission
Image		Value YTL	Dimensions (mm)	Main Colour				Description		Date of
Obverse	Reverse			Obverse		Reverse		Obverse	Reverse	issue	withdrawal
		1	156 × 76		Claret red and blue	Pale claret red and blue		Mustafa Kemal Atatürk	Atatürk Dam	1 January 2005	1 January 2010
		5	162 × 76		Pastel yellow and greenish brown				Anıtkabir
		10			Red	Purple and red			Piri Reis Map
		20			Green				Ephesus
		50	152 × 81		Orange	Light brown and orange			Cappadocia
		100	158 × 81		Blue				Ishak Pasha Palace
These images are to scale at 0.7 pixel per millimetre. For table standards, see the banknote specification table.

The Ninth Issue (E9) Banknotes

A new series of banknotes, the "E-9 Emission Group" entered circulation on 1 January 2009, with the E-8 group ceasing to be valid after 31 December 2009 (although still redeemable at branches of the Central Bank until 31 December 2019). The E-9 banknotes refer to the currency as "Turkish lira" rather than "new Turkish lira", and include a new ₺200 denomination.^[3] The new banknotes have different sizes to prevent forgery.^[4] The main specificity of this new series is that each denomination depicts a famous Turkish personality, rather than geographical sites and architectural features of Turkey.^[5] The dominant colour of the ₺5 banknote has been determined as “purple” on the second series of the current banknotes.^[6]

Current Turkish lira banknotes
Image		Value ₺	Dimensions (mm)	Main Colour		Description			Date of issue
Obverse	Reverse					Obverse	Reverse	Watermark
		5	130 × 64		Brown	Mustafa Kemal Atatürk	Aydın Sayılı, diagrams of solar system, atom, ancient cave and a left-handed Z-DNA helix.	Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Value	1 January 2009
					Purple				8 April 2013
		10	136 × 64		Red		Cahit Arf, Arf invariant, arithmetic series, abacus, binary		1 January 2009
		20	142 × 68		Green		Mimar Kemaleddin, Gazi University main building, aqueduct, circular motif and cube-globe-cylinder symbolizing architecture
		50	148 × 68		Orange		Fatma Aliye Topuz, flower and literary figures
		100	154 × 72		Blue		Buhurizade Itri, notes, instruments and Mevlevi figure
		200	160 × 72		Pink		Yunus Emre, Yunus's mausoleum, rose, pigeon and the line "Sevelim, sevilelim" (Let us love, let us be loved)
These images are to scale at 0.7 pixel per millimetre. For table standards, see the banknote specification table.

See also

• Turkish lira
• Economy of Turkey
• Economy of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
• Coins of Turkey