Turkey ushered in the New Year with a new currency, scrapping the multi-million-lira banknotes that had bewildered tourists and embarrassed government officials and ordinary citizens during decades of chronic hyperinflation.

"We are happy that we have given the lira back its credibility," Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters as he drew some notes from a cash dispenser after midnight.

The New Turkish Lira, known locally by the initials YTL, is worth one million old lira and can be exchanged for 0.74 dollars or 0.55 euros, enabling a foreigner to buy a cup of coffee or bargain for souvenirs without the help of a pocket calculator.

But old banknotes, including the 20,000,000-lira bill -- the world's largest denomination -- will remain legal tender until December 31, 2005, and shopkeepers must display goods at the old as well as the new price until then.

One result will be the return of the kurus, which disappeared from circulation more than two decades ago. There will be 100 kurus to the New Turkish lira, and Turks will for the first time for many years again have to get used to handling coins.