Beyond Borders: Understanding the Unique Currency of Georgia

DISCLAIMER: I am NOT a Numismatist (currency expert) and am not claiming to be such. My musings here perhaps are a grasping at the straws of an understanding far beyond my reach. But far be it for me not to try and give it a go.

Now, I want to take a moment and clear up in your mind a possible misconception ongoingly epidemic in the world at large or at the very least as it exists in the minds of modern-day Americans. The misconception is that of the currency floating around in American (and other countries around the world) and how the relates to how it is used in that perhaps the structure of the currency in American is identical to the structure of the currencies outside of America. It’s not. Allow me to explain how.

I’ll give you one example and only one. The United States Dollar (USD) has one form of bills and coins, aka dollars and cents. One hundred cents makes up one dollar. Easy enough, right? Simple. One set of bills and one set of cents that always mean the same thing to each other but that which fluctuates in it’s relation to other currencies. One day a dollar can mean 50 Filipino Pesos (PHP) and the next it can mean 60 … but it will always be relating to itself, i.e.: dollars and cents, in terms of value and meaning, exactly the same. That is, one day 1 dollar won’t mean 101 cents or 99 cents or any other amount in either direction. It is the same currency and doesn’t change.

Now, here’s where shit gets weird. Georgia has, in my mind as I understand it, not two sets of currencies on the inside but two sets of meanings for the currencies that do not exist for them in the same way when viewed from the outside. The simplicity with which the outer world sees these two currencies is as one when in reality in their use inside the country, they exist as entirely separate but together for the amounts of meaning and value they share with, for, and to another. In other words, and perhaps I’m overstepping a boundary here, the Georgian Tetri (their cent) can come in both forms of bills and coins while Lari (their dollar) can come in both bills and coins as well. I want to point out that America has a one dollar, five dollar, and even a ten dollar coin. It’s not unironic to see this as a form of currency in and of itself but the connecting thread here points to a reversal of the possibility of cents being in the larger bill form without it being the bill itself.

A man the other day told me when I handed him a bill the other day that it was in Tetri, not Lari. Same for a woman the same day. I couldn’t pay her with bills because the bills were Tetri, not Lari. Then today a woman tells me their Lari is one Lari to ten Tetri. This was outside of any purchase so it’s not like she was trying to rip me off. She and her colleague explained to me that Lari is ten times Tetri and Tetri is one tenth of Lari. Now, let’s clear this up. It’s possible the language barrier makes it difficult for them to explain themselves on the level that they wish they could and that I just received the wrong message. But as I understand it, these are two separate currencies that always mean the same thing to each other on the inside (Lari and Tetri) of Georgia under the umbrella term of Lari wherein they always relate to each other the same and shift in relation to currencies outside of Georgia different.

That being said, if I may recap, the bills and coins of both Lari and Tetri (on both levels) as separate currencies from each other always relate the same to one another, but when viewed from the outside are not different at all and keeps up all appearances of being one and the same. I may in fact be oversimplifying something far more complex or be overcomplicating something otherwise entirely too simple for the human mind to play with but with all that in mind, it’s fair to say I’m alright being, if I am, a man grappling with the complexities of cultures outside my own and I think it’s perfectly alright if in trying to make sense of something, you don’t. But don’t let that stop you from continually trying to understand and bring in new understanding in the process both for yourself and others, regardless of if you get it right, new possibilities and doorways through which you can walk.