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1 000 000 Lira Ancient Lydian stater
| Issuer | Turkey |
|---|---|
| Year | 1997 |
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| Currency | Old lira (1923-2005) |
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| Obverse description | Central field bears the denomination '1.000.000 LIRA' and date '1997' in three lines, flanked on either side by stylized wheat ears. The crescent and star emblem of Turkey appears at the top, surmounted by a laurel and olive wreath encircling the entire design. The legend 'TÜRKİYE CUMHURİYETİ' runs along the upper periphery within the wreath. |
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| Reverse lettering | DUNYADA ILK PARA LIDYA M.O. 640 (Translation: FIRST COIN AT THE WORLD LIDYA B.C. 640) |
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| Additional information |
Turkey's 1997 bullion and commemorative program repeatedly drew on Anatolia's pre-Hellenic monetary history, and this piece references the electrum stater of ancient Lydia — widely credited as among the earliest struck coinage in the world, produced in the kingdom of Croesus and his predecessors around the 7th–6th centuries BC. Sardis, the Lydian capital, sat in what is now western Turkey, giving Ankara a reasonable geographical claim to the heritage. The denomination, one million lira, reflects the chronic inflation that had eroded the Turkish lira throughout the 1990s before the 2005 redenomination wiped six zeros from the currency.