The currency is the Turkish lira and as of this writing on 1 Mart (March), 2014, the exchange rate is:
one US dollar = 2.21 Turkish lira or TL (sometimes abbreviated as TY). For the past year the exchange rate was about 2 TL per 1 US dollar, so because we're paid in U.S. dollars it's in our favor right now (2.2/1). Our landlord (an elderly Turkish woman who also lives in our building) insists that we pay our rent in U.S. dollars (as do most landlords) to try to avoid the inflation/exchange problem.
Mustafa Kemal Ataturk or "the father of Turkey" is on the front of all paper money (more about him another time). To tell the truth, I'm not sure who the people on the backs are; important to be sure.
The smallest coin is 1 KR, but we've only seen that coin a time or two. They tend to round things off to the nearest 10 KR and for larger purchases they'll round to the nearest lira, though we still end up with a pocket full of coins after every shopping trip.
How much do things cost here?
Fresh whole milk (2% or 1% is not available) is sold by the liter for a little over 2 TL, so a gallon would be 8 TL or about $4 US. I've been buying fresh farm eggs for $0.50 US apiece. Gasoline is sold by the liter for about 4.60 TL = $9.20 US/gallon. Now tell me that doesn't make your gas prices back home not look so bad. I also don't need to tell you most everyone drives small 4 cylinder cars. Fast food (McDonalds, Burger King) is cheaper here than in the USA for some reason. Starbucks hot chocolate is about the same price. We get 20 liters ( 5 gallons) of bottled drinking water delivered to our apartment once a week for 9.40 TL = $3.70 US.
A one-way bus ride will cost 1.75 TL = $0.87 US. As in Australia, the cost of dry cleaning is expensive, 12 TL = $6 US for one long sleeve shirt - yikes!! A cinema ticket is around 13 TL = $7.50 US. A great steak dinner at a nice local restaurant (Gunaydin Steakhouse) will cost about $100 US for the two of us. To buy a car is super expensive because of the extra tax, around $100,000 US for a BMW or Mercedes, which are relatively common in some parts of the city (some people here have lots of money). We have no plan to buy a car, but taxis are plentiful (about $8 to ride to Roy's office from our place), and rental cars are readily available.
Almost all of the Turkish workers in Roy's office, who are college-educated professionals, make less than $6,000/month. Fortunately, food staples (flour, rice, beans, fruit & veggies) are fairly inexpensive and the supply and quality are excellent. There are very few beggars and we've seen none outside of the large cities; it's a doctrine of Islam to help the poor and the people help each other with the basics.
Real estate in the city centers, such as around our apartment, is very pricey and modest apartments can sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars. We haven't visited the Mediterranean Sea coast yet, but it's becoming a popular retirement area for Europeans so I'm sure real estate is getting expensive there also. Heat and electricity in Ankara are expensive and, as I've mentioned before, I dry almost all of our wash on drying racks inside or on our balcony.
We're getting along fine and I'm learning where the deals are and which markets consistently carry the things we need at good prices. We've had to purchase a few local appliances and they use the European-style two-round-prong type of plug (at 220v), so they won't be any good to use back in the states; fortunately, we had some things (lamps, radio, electric piano) from Australia that run on 220v, though the plug is different so our sockets are a mass of different types of adapters.
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