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Kuru
Found in: Turkish words and phrases Coins of Turkey
Kuru is a Turkish currency subunit. One Turkish lira was equal to 100 kuru. The kuru (or piastre) was also the standard unit of currency in the Ottoman Empire. Originally a large silver coin, in the mid 1800s its value had depreciated to the point where it circulated as both a large copper coin (as 40 para) and a very small silver one as well. It then became a subunit of the Turkish Gold Lira.
Kuru eventually became obsolete due to the chronic inflation in Turkey in the late 1970s. A currency reform on 1 January 2005 provided its return as the 1/100th of the New Turkish Lira, and it was renamed as Yeni Kuru (New Kuru).
The kuru was also used in Cyprus when the latter was ruled by the Ottoman Empire. It was called Grosi by the Greeks of the island. When Cyprus passed to British control, the Cyprus Pound became the currency of the island divided into 20 shillings and each shilling into 9 kuru / grosia / piastres. When later the pound was decimalized into 1000 mils, the people of Cyprus continued calling the 5 mils coin grosi / kuru.
See also
Qirsh
Lira
External links
http://www.osmanlimedeniyeti.com Articles about Ottoman coins
http://www.osmanliparalari.com Everything about Ottoman coins /
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Kuru