Lari sign

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The NBG announced the Lari sign competition in December 2013. The temporary commission consisted of representatives of NBG, the Budget and Finance Committee of the Parliament of Georgia, the State Council of Heraldry, the Ministry of Culture and Monument Protection of Georgia and the Ministry of Education and Science of Georgia.^[3]

On 8 July 2014, Giorgi Kadagidze, Governor of the National Bank of Georgia (NBG), unveiled the winning proposal for the sign of the national currency to the public.^[4] The author of the winning sign was professional artist-ceramist, Malkhaz Shvelidze.^[3]

In choosing the winning sign, the commission gave priority to the samples based on the Georgian Mkhedruli character and made a point of the following criteria: conception, design, accordance with Georgian alphabet, existence of elements marking the currency, ease of construction, and observance of requests and recommendations determined by competition rules.^[3]

The Lari sign is based on an arched letter ლ (Lasi) of the Georgian script. It is common international practice for a currency sign to consist of a letter, crossed by one or two parallel lines. Two parallel lines crossing the letter Lasi are the basic components of the Lari sign. The so-called “leg” of the letter, represented by a horizontal line, is a necessary attribute of the sign, adding monumental stability to the upper dynamic arc. The form of the letter is transformed in order to simplify its perception and implementation as a Lari sign.^[3]

On 18 July 2014, Giorgi Melashvili, executive director of the National Bank of Georgia, sent a request letter to the Unicode Consortium to register the symbol in the Currency Symbols block of the Unicode Standard as

₾ U+20BE GEORGIAN LARI SIGN^[5]

On 17 June 2015, the Unicode Consortium released^[6] Unicode V8.0, which includes the Lari sign as

U+20BE ₾ LARI SIGN^[7]

Coins

Coins are issued in denominations of 5, 10, 20 and 50 tetri, as well as 1 and 2 lari.

The National Bank of Georgia announced on 5 October 2018 that it would discontinue circulation of 1 and 2 Tetri coins as of 1 January 2021, and that these coins would lose their legal tender status. 1 and 2 Tetri coins could be exchanged at the National Bank of Georgia and commercial banks in Georgia within one year from 1 January 2021, and can only be exchanged at the National Bank of Georgia from 1 January 2022.^[8][9] According to the new regulations on cash payments introduced by the National Bank of Georgia on 1 January 2019, 1 and 2 tetri are rounded to 0, and 3, 4, 6 and 7 tetri are rounded to 5^{[clarification needed]}.^[10]

The National Bank of Georgia announced on 12 November 2015 that, effective 1 January 2018, the old 50 Tetri coin, issued since 1995, would be withdrawn from circulation and the coins would lose their legal tender status. The old 50 Tetri coin were exchangeable at the National Bank of Georgia and commercial banks of Georgia within one year from 1 January 2018, and from 1 January 2019 only at the National Bank of Georgia.^[11][12][13]

Banknotes