by Michael S. Kaplan, published on 2012/03/14 07:01 -04:00, original URI: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/michkap/archive/2012/03/14/10282633.aspx
http://blogs.ft.com/beyond-brics/2012/03/01/turkey-a-new-symbol-for-the-lira/#axzz1nt2XHczC
Here we go again, right?
(Cue recycled Reuters image)
As the article mentioned:
The lira design was the winner of more than 8,000 entries in a public competition, some of them, Erdogan (centre) pointed out, from prisoners. He depicted the new symbol as a natural progression from previous changes, including lopping off six zeros from the currency in 2005 and dropping the designation “new Turkish lira” three years ago.
I remember some of those previous gyrations; perhaps you do as well...
I tend to blame the Euro for this of events. If the Euro had never been invented, we might not have to keep dealing with this sort of thing.
I didn't feel eager. Or hopeful
I just felt tired.
Thinking about the past.
Like those new Turkish lira coins, the one that looked and felt so much like 2 Euro coins that it fooled vending machines.
And t wasn't the small difference like between US and Canadian quarters last decade..
In this case, every time you got a machine to take the Turkish coin you made a 400% profit.
Maybe, perhaps, I am being too harsh here, though.
I don't want to get all negative about Turkey here.
Technically the 9th most exciting night of my life happened mere hours after a Jethro Tull show about two decades ago (a part of their A Little Light Music tour). And not just because of the cat I didn't sneak in. She was just glad to see me again.
But pleasant memories aren't enough to get me interested in the latest flashy plan to revitalize the Turkish Lira.
I'm not going to be holding onto extra Liras any time soon.
I still have some Liras and New Liras that are never going to be worth anything.
For now, I'm just gonna roll away and not think about that night. I'll leave the new Lira alone until I'm asked to do something with it.
Maybe I'm just getting old....
Sukru on 14 Mar 2012 9:07 AM:
Actually, you can still redeem old "new Turkish Lira", and "Turkish Lira" notes at TCMB or Ziraat Bankasi branches (as far as I know there is one in US for handling Turkish citizen's legal works with the embassy, etc). They have an expiration period of 10 years, which should be more than enough to redeem them.
Doug Ewell on 14 Mar 2012 9:46 AM:
New currency symbols don't "rival" existing symbols for other currencies, and they don't confer some sort of additional stability or world prominence onto the currency. They make it easier and less ambiguous to write amounts in that currency. Someone needs to do a better job communicating this.
Michael S. Kaplan on 14 Mar 2012 8:56 PM:
I agree, Doug - though Turkey seems unconvinced!
Doug Ewell on 15 Mar 2012 2:30 PM:
India seemed unconvinced a couple of years ago, too. I wonder if anything has changed.
Hong Kong Dollar Hello on 31 Jul 2012 12:04 AM:
Shouldn't they have renamed the currency so that it isn't an Italian name, say if they want to get all nationalistic about a symbol?
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