Lira

For other uses, see Lira (disambiguation).

Lira
Vittorio Emanuele II: 1 Italian lira 1863

Lira is the name of the monetary unit of a number of countries, as well as the former currency of Italy, San Marino and the Vatican City.

The term originates from the value of a Troy pound weight (Latin libra) of high purity silver, and as such is a direct cognate of the British pound sterling; in some countries, such as Cyprus, the words lira and pound are used as equivalents. L, sometimes in a double-crossed script form (₤) or less often single-crossed (£), is usually used as the symbol.

Contents 1 Former currencies 2 Current uses 2.1 Turkey 2.2 Malta 2.3 Cyprus 2.4 Lebanon 3 External link

Former currencies

• Italian lira
• San Marinese lira
• Vatican lira

Current uses

Turkey

The Turkish Lira was introduced in the mid 1870s. The New Turkish Lira, equivalent to 1,000,000 old lira, is the current currency of Turkey, issued on January 1, 2005.

Malta

The Maltese Lira, known in the Maltese language as the Lira Maltija, is the currency of Malta. It is sometimes referred to as a pound.

Cyprus

The Cyprus pound is called "lira" in local languages.

Lebanon

The Lebanese pound is called "lira" in local languages.

External link

• Overview of Italian lira from the BBC

Pre-euro and other EU currencies

Eurozone Austrian schilling | Belgian franc | Dutch gulden | Finnish markka | French franc | German mark | Greek drachma | Irish pound | Italian lira | Luxembourgian franc | Portuguese escudo | San Marinese lira | Spanish peseta | Vatican lira ERM Cypriot pound | Danish krone | Estonian kroon | Latvian lats | Lithuanian litas | Maltese lira | Slovak koruna | Slovenian tolar Other EU British pound | Czech koruna | Hungarian forint | Polish złoty | Swedish krona

The content of this page is retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lira under GFDL