Turkish lira symbol
The turkish lira symbol ₺ is one of the youngest currency signs in the world — unveiled in 2012, drawn like an anchor for stability with an upward tilt for growth. Copy the sign itself below, see it at work in Turkish price formats, and find its Unicode and keyboard details for your own documents.
Copy the sign
How the lira is written
Turkey’s currency code is TRY (ISO 4217, numeric 949), and one lira divides into 100 kuruş. In Turkish usage the sign stands BEFORE the amount with no space, and the number format flips the English habit: dots group the thousands and a comma marks the decimals, so one thousand two hundred and fifty lira and seventy-five kuruş is written ₺1.250,75. The sign itself was chosen in a public competition run by the Central Bank of the Republic of Türkiye and introduced on 1 March 2012; its shape folds the letter L together with the double strokes of coinage, angled upward like a rising arrow inside an anchor. Before 2012 the lira had no sign of its own and was written with the abbreviation TL — still seen informally today. Older still is ₤ (U+20A4), the shared “lira sign” Italy also once used; in modern Turkish text ₺ has fully replaced it.
Formatting at a glance
| You write | What it means |
|---|---|
| ₺250 | Symbol first, no space — the standard Turkish price style |
| ₺1.250,75 | Full Turkish format: dot for thousands, comma for decimals |
| 250 TRY | The ISO code after the amount — international and English-language text |
| 250 TL | The pre-2012 abbreviation, still common in speech and older listings |
How to type the ₺ sign
| Method | Steps |
|---|---|
| Copy and paste | Tap ₺ above and paste (Ctrl+V / Cmd+V) — fastest on every device |
| Microsoft Word | Type 20BA then press Alt+X and the code converts to ₺ |
| Windows Alt code | Hold Alt and type 8378 on the numeric keypad |
| Mac & iPhone | No dedicated key: use Character Viewer (Mac) or copy from here; in HTML use the decimal entity (8378) or hex (20BA) |
The sign lives at Unicode U+20BA, added in Unicode 6.2 in 2012 — the same year as its launch. On systems with very old fonts it may show as a box; copying the character still carries the correct code, and a current browser or phone renders it properly.
Explore more
The full set of world money signs lives on the currency symbol page; its closest neighbours here are the dirham symbol, the euro symbol across the Bosphorus and the pound symbol.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between ₺ and TL?
₺ is the lira’s official currency sign, introduced in 2012 — a single character like $ or €. TL (Türk Lirası) is the older abbreviation made of two letters. Both mean the same money; the sign is preferred in prices and modern documents, while TL survives in speech and legacy text.
Why do Turkish prices look like 49,99?
Because Turkey follows the continental format: the comma is the decimal mark and the dot groups thousands. ₺49,99 is forty-nine lira and ninety-nine kuruş, and ₺1.250 is one thousand two hundred and fifty lira — not one point two five. Reading the comma as the decimal point is the whole trick.
What is the lira’s currency code?
TRY in the ISO 4217 standard (numeric code 949). You will see it in exchange listings, banking apps and international price tags, usually written after the amount: 250 TRY. The code stayed TRY when the “new lira” era ended in 2009 and the currency simply became the Turkish lira again.
Why does ₺ sometimes show as an empty box?
The character only entered Unicode in 2012, so fonts older than that have no drawing for it and substitute a box. The copied character is still the correct U+20BA underneath — update the font or view the text on a current device and the sign appears.
