"To Turks, money reform feels like million
New bills drop all those zeroes
By Catherine Collins
Special to the Tribune
Published January 4, 2005
ISTANBUL -- Thanking the woman behind the currency exchange window, Deniz Akar crouched in front of his son and showed him the crisp new bills and shiny coins. It wasn't candy or a new toy, but the 3-year-old smiled happily.
'When I was a child, I could go out and buy something for 25 kurus,' Akar said, looking down at the new denominations of lira in his hand. 'And now that the kurus coin has returned, my son can too.'
The start of a new year is a time of fresh beginnings and well-intentioned resolutions. Turkey's freshly minted currency, the new Turkish lira, is both. It was launched on the first day of 2005 with jaw-clenching determination to shed unwanted zeroes--six of them to be precise--like unwanted pounds."
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