The monetary unit of Georgia bears the name GEL (put into circulation in 1995), which, in turn, is divided into one hundred Tetri. The international currency code is GEL.
Short story
The modern monetary unit of Georgia has become official in the country under the presidency of E. Shevardnadze, namely, since 1995, the symbol of the national currency was introduced on July 8, 2014. The letter of the Georgian alphabet ლ (l) served as the basis for the design of the symbol.
In circulation in the country there are both paper lari banknotes and metal coins. Below, the article will separately consider bills and coins.
Coins
In Georgia, the main monetary unit of lari is most often used in the form of paper notes, however, there are coins of one and two lari denominations. Most metal coins are still less worthy than lari. In circulation are coins in one tetri, two, five, ten, twenty and fifty tetri.
All tetri coins were first minted and put into circulation in 1995. They are still used for payment. Coins for circulation in Georgia are minted at the mint in Paris.
Coins in denominations from one to twenty tetri are made of stainless steel, and 50 tetri from an alloy of copper, nickel and aluminum. In Georgia, there are also commemorative coins issued by the National Bank. They are made both from precious metals (gold, silver), and from underpriced, which include nickel silver and nickel silver.
Banknotes
The monetary unit of Georgia in the form of paper notes began to be used simultaneously with coins. There are two series of Georgian lari: old and new. The old version was produced in 1995 to 2006, is in circulation to this day. On the banknotes of this series, the denomination is registered both in Georgian and in English. In the course of banknotes in denominations of one, two, five, ten, twenty, fifty, one hundred and two hundred lari. In a limited edition, banknotes worth 500 GEL were also issued.
In 2016, a series of notes with a new design was released. The appearance was changed in twenty, fifty and one hundred lari bills.
Monetary unit of Georgia. Exchange rate to the ruble and other currencies
Georgian currency is much more expensive than the Russian ruble in the international currency market. Thus, the monetary unit of Georgia to the ruble is estimated at approximately 23 and a half rubles, therefore, for one ruble you will receive about 0.04 GEL.
As for the other currencies, for one euro they give approximately 2.7 GEL. The figure, of course, is approximate, since quotes of currencies are constantly changing due to the cyclical and volatile currency market. For one American dollar, about 2.5 GEL is given, respectively, one lari is estimated at approximately $ 0.4.
The monetary unit of Georgia is not very popular on the international market. This is due to the fact that Georgia does not have a strong economy, quite a few international trade transactions pass through it, and although tourism is developed, the country is not included in the list of leaders in this industry.
Exchange operations. Conclusion
A tourist who wants to visit this Caucasian country needs to first find out everything about the financial side. A Russian citizen traveling to Georgia has nothing to worry about, as the republic will easily exchange Russian rubles for GEL for you. This can be done almost everywhere: at the airport, hotel, bank or exchange office.
Georgian companies engaged in currency exchange and other financial transactions are happy to work with the currency of the Russian Federation. There are quite a lot of visitors from Russia to the country. In addition, many Georgians study and work in Russia, and send remittances to their homeland, so the flow of Russian money to Georgia is quite high. But as for the exchange of Russian rubles for GEL in Russia itself, then it will be much more problematic, since it is almost impossible to find a place where such an exchange operation can be made. They work with Georgian currency except in the border cities of the Caucasus, and then not everywhere.
In addition to the Russian currency, in Georgia there is no difficulty exchanging dollars and euros, but other banknotes can be quite problematic to exchange. The country also works with Armenian currency, Turkish lira, British pounds and some other currencies.
Georgia is a fascinating country with beautiful mountain nature and centuries-old history, so many people will be interested in visiting it. Russian citizens were a little luckier than residents of some other countries, because no difficulties with the exchange of money would arise. Thanks to this, a newcomer has no other problems associated with this.
Going to any country, you need to carefully think through all your actions in order to exclude the possibility of any difficulties. Currency exchange is one of the most important issues that you should pay attention to, because no one wants to be in a foreign country without money, more precisely with money that is not used on the territory of this state.