The Georgian lari
Currency · GEL · ₾ · 1 country
Georgia swapped its provisional coupon money, the kuponi, for the lari on 2 October 1995, at one million kuponi to one lari. The National Bank of Georgia issues it and divides it into 100 tetri. Its sign, ₾, is a reshaped Georgian letter ლ, approved by the bank's board on 7 July 2014.
The sign
The ₾ is the arched Georgian letter ლ (lasi), from the Mkhedruli script, crossed by two parallel lines, with a horizontal stroke at its foot. The ceramist Malkhaz Shvelidze drew it for a National Bank competition, and the bank's board approved it on 7 July 2014. Unicode encodes it as U+20BE.
- ISO code
- GEL
- ISO number
- 981
- Subunit
- tetri, 1/100
An amount, written out
₾1,234.50
- ₾1,234.50English
- 1234,50 ₾GeorgianGeorgia
In English the sign comes before the amount. Where the Georgian lari is used, it comes after the amount in Georgia.
The sign in code
HTML, CSS, JavaScript, UTF-8
- HTML
₾₾- CSS
content: "\20BE";- JavaScript
"\u20BE"- UTF-8
0xE2 0x82 0xBE- UTF-16
0x20BE- UTF-32
0x000020BE
Where the Georgian lari is the official currency
Georgia uses the lari alone. Its national bank has retired older notes and small tetri coins in stages since 2018.
About the Georgian lari
Why Georgia printed coupons before the lari
Georgia's first money of its own came on 11 July 1919, when the Constituent Assembly of the independent republic issued the boni as a temporary means of payment. A State Bank opened on 24 July 1920 and worked as the country's central bank until 1921. The present National Bank of Georgia was founded in 1991, after the Soviet Union collapsed, out of the Soviet banking entities in Georgia that the Supreme Council declared the republic's property.
On 5 April 1993 Georgia replaced the Soviet ruble with the kuponi, at par. It was paper only. There was no subdivision, and hyperinflation ran through it: four series of notes came out in 1993 alone, and a million kuponi note followed in 1994. The values included odd ones such as 3, 3,000, 30,000 and 150,000.
How a million kuponi turned into one lari
The government swapped the coupons for the lari on 2 October 1995 at one million to one. Lari is an old Georgian word for a hoard or property. The hundredth, the tetri, takes its name from an old monetary term meaning white, used in ancient Colchis from the sixth century BC.
Why the tetri coins were thinned out
Coins run from 5 tetri to 2 lari, and the 2 lari piece has a cupronickel ring around a copper, aluminium and nickel core. The first 50 tetri coin, issued since 1995, lost its legal tender status on 1 January 2018, twelve years after a new 50 tetri coin arrived. Rules for cash payments that the National Bank introduced on 1 January 2019 round 1 and 2 tetri down to nothing. The 1 and 2 tetri coins themselves stopped being legal tender on 1 January 2021. Banks exchanged them for a year; since 1 January 2022 only the National Bank does.
Who appears on the upgraded notes
Between November 2016 and October 2019 the National Bank released a complete new set of five notes, from 5 to 100 lari, produced with Oberthur Technologies, Giesecke+Devrient and De La Rue. The fronts carry Ivane Javakhishvili, Akaki Tsereteli, Ilia Chavchavadze, Queen Tamar and Shota Rustaveli. Notes of 1 to 100 lari printed between 1995 and 1999 lost legal tender status on 1 January 2022. A 200 lari note, first issued on 15 April 2007, is still current but rarely used, and a 500 lari note designed in 1995 was never issued.
Why the bank called its new sign temporary
The National Bank opened a competition for a lari sign in December 2013, and in February a commission picked five designs for a public vote. The board approved the winner on 7 July 2014. It was unveiled the next day. At the unveiling the bank's governor of the time said the sign would have a limited life, because Georgia would one day join the European Union and its single currency. Unicode added it in version 8.0 on 17 June 2015.
Common questions
Questions about the Georgian lari
What does lari mean in Georgian?
Lari is an old Georgian word meaning a hoard or property. The subunit, tetri, is older still: a monetary term meaning white, used in ancient Colchis from the sixth century BC. Earlier Georgian money went by other names, among them the maneti, the abazi and, from 1993 to 1995, the kuponi.
Who designed the Georgian lari sign ₾?
Malkhaz Shvelidze, a professional artist and ceramist, won the National Bank of Georgia's competition, which opened in December 2013. A commission shortlisted five designs in February 2014 and put them to a public vote. The commission favoured entries built on the Mkhedruli alphabet, and the winner reshapes the letter ლ with two parallel lines through it and a horizontal foot. The bank's board approved it on 7 July 2014, and on 18 July the National Bank asked the Unicode Consortium to encode it.
Can 1 and 2 tetri coins still be used?
No. The National Bank of Georgia withdrew them on 1 January 2021, when they lost legal tender status. Commercial banks exchanged them for one year, and since 1 January 2022 only the National Bank will take them. Cash totals had already been rounded since 2019, with 1 and 2 tetri counted as zero.
Why did Georgia need the kuponi?
It was a stopgap. On 5 April 1993 Georgia replaced the Soviet ruble with the kuponi at par, as a transitional currency made only of banknotes and with no smaller unit. Hyperinflation followed, and notes as large as a million kuponi were printed. In October 1995 the lari took over at one million kuponi to one lari.