50 Lira Göbekli Tepe

Göbekli Tepe was largely dismissed as a medieval cemetery when German archaeologist Klaus Schmidt first surveyed it in 1994. Subsequent excavation revealed something far more disruptive: a complex of carved limestone pillars dated to approximately 9600 BCE, predating Stonehenge by six millennia and forcing a reassessment of when organized human construction — and by extension, social complexity — actually began.

Turkey's Central Bank issued this coin four years before UNESCO added the site to its World Heritage list. Schmidt himself died in 2014 with only a fraction of the estimated 200+ enclosures excavated.