# How many zeros would it take to express 1 trillion Dollars as LIRA? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 6, 2002, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-zeros-would-it-take-to-express-1-trillion-dollars-as-lira/117655 "2002-07-06T18:41:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2002, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-zeros-would-it-take-to-express-1-trillion-dollars-as-lira/117655/1 "2002-07-06T18:41:51Z")
Lira (which I know are no longer in use, Italy went Euro, didn’t they?) always struck me as insane. It took what…a thousand lira to make a buck? So what kind of numbers were they workin with when it came to millions, billions and trillions of dollars? And what are those numbers called, and did Italy really use them? I gots ta know! ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2002, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-zeros-would-it-take-to-express-1-trillion-dollars-as-lira/117655/2 "2002-07-06T18:47:35Z")
Italy do use the Euro. The last exchange rate I saw had USD1 = ITL1,988. **US trillion** : USD1,000,000,000,000 = ITL1,988,000,000,000,000 **Non-US trillion** : USD1,000,000,000,000,000,000 = ITL1,988,000,000,000,000,000,000 ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2002, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-zeros-would-it-take-to-express-1-trillion-dollars-as-lira/117655/3 "2002-07-06T18:48:46Z")
…and some information on terms: [http://www.jimloy.com/math/billion.htm](http://www.jimloy.com/math/billion.htm) ---
**Author:** ![Stoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stoid/32/272_2.png) [@Stoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stoid)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2002, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-zeros-would-it-take-to-express-1-trillion-dollars-as-lira/117655/4 "2002-07-06T20:03:13Z")
Thanks, Crusoe! ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2002, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-zeros-would-it-take-to-express-1-trillion-dollars-as-lira/117655/5 "2002-09-13T17:25:59Z")
I know this is an old thread, but I just thought I’d point out that even though Italy no longer uses lire, Turkey does - and its exchange rate is even more absurd, being currently TRL1,664,864.30 = USD1 ([Currency converter](http://www.xe.com/ucc/convert.cgi)) ---
**Author:** ![cdhostage](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@cdhostage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cdhostage)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2002, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-zeros-would-it-take-to-express-1-trillion-dollars-as-lira/117655/6 "2002-09-13T21:15:47Z")
Silliness. Well, no not really. I’d love it if the euro eventually becomes a credit. 1 million credits buys you a gram of gold. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2002, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-zeros-would-it-take-to-express-1-trillion-dollars-as-lira/117655/7 "2002-09-14T00:06:53Z")
I recently visited Slovenia (used to be part of Yugoslavia). On checking out, I was informed that my hotel bill was… 136,000 tolars (the local currency) :eek: Fortunately that is about £370 (approx $500). Phew. ---
**Author:** ![waterj2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/858c86/32.png) [@waterj2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/waterj2)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2002, 3:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-many-zeros-would-it-take-to-express-1-trillion-dollars-as-lira/117655/8 "2002-09-14T03:34:29Z")
> [@](#): > > TRL1,664,864.30 Do they even make fractions of Turkish Lira? How would you get the .30? How do you write a check for, say, a house? “One trillion, four hundred nineteen billion, six hundred forty-seven million, nine hundred thousand and --------- [sup]00[/sup]/[sub]100[/sub] Turkish Lira”?