Originally a dollar size silver coin, the piastre served as the major unit of currency of French Indochina (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos), and Ottoman Turkey.

The term is still unofficially used in Quebec French slang as a reference to the Canadian dollar. Early private bank currency issues in French speaking regions of Canada were denominated in piastres. The official French term for the modern Canadian dollar is dollar.

Piastre was also the original French word for the U.S. dollar, used for example in the French text of the Louisiana Purchase. Modern French uses dollar for this unit of currency as well.

The piastre still exists as the subdivision of the Egyptian pound. Theoretically, the piastre also still exists in Lebanon, where it is a subdivision of the Lebanese pound; inflation, however, has rendered it superfluous and it is not currently in use.

See also

• Kurus – the standard unit of currency in the Ottoman Empire. Commonly known as Piastre.
• Dong – the history of currency in Vietnam. Piastre was the standard unit of currency in French Indochina and South Vietnam.