15 000 000 Lira World Cup Germany 2006

Turkey's 2006 World Cup qualifier campaign was still uncertain when this coin was struck in 2003 — the Turkish Football Federation had only just experienced the high of a third-place finish at the 2002 Korea/Japan tournament, their best-ever result. The coin was issued ahead of confirmed qualification, a speculative gesture that ultimately paid off when Turkey secured their spot in Germany.

The denomination reflects the final years of the old Turkish lira, a currency so inflated that fifteen million of them represented roughly ten U.S. dollars. The monetary reform of January 2005 redenominated at 1,000,000:1, rendering this face value immediately obsolete.