History·1 May 2026·4 min read
The Ottoman lira — money of an empire at sunset
The currency of the Ottoman Empire, alongside which galbeni and paras circulated for centuries in the Romanian lands.
The Ottoman Empire used gold coins (sultani, later the Ottoman lira) and silver and copper change (paras, aspers). These circulated heavily in the Romanian lands, on the empire's frontier.
A world of many currencies
The Romanian merchant of a few centuries ago juggled Hungarian galbeni, Austrian thalers and Turkish paras daily. It was complicated and risky — exactly why a single national currency was a huge advance.
