It was divided into 100 centų (genitive case; singular centas, nominative plural centai).

The euro was expected to replace the litas by 1 January 2007, but persistent high inflation and the economic crisis delayed the switch.

[3] The first litas was introduced on 2 October 1922, replacing the ostmark and ostrubel, both of which had been issued by the occupying German forces during World War I.

One litas was covered by 0.150462 grams of gold stored by the Bank of Lithuania in foreign countries.

In March 1923, the circulation amounted to 39,412,984 litas, backed by 15,738,964 in actual gold and by 24,000,000 in high exchange securities.

Such an exchange rate provided great profit for Soviet military and party officials.

Trying to protect the value of the currency, people started to massively buy, which, together with a downfall in production (following nationalization), caused material shortages.

The litas coins displayed Jonas Basanavičius and Vytautas the Great, which was replaced by a portrait of President Antanas Smetona.

In 1922, the Bank of Lithuania issued notes in denominations of 1 centas, 2 centu, 5 centai, 10, 20, 50-centų, and 1 litas, 2 litu, 5 litai, 10, 50, 100 litų.

The 1 centas, 2, 5 centai pieces were minted in aluminium, the 10, 20, 50-centų in bronze and the litas coins were of cupro-nickel.

All had the obverse designs showing the coat of arms in the center and the name of the state "Lietuva" in capital letters.

About 80% of Lithuania's trade was with Russia and the government needed to find a way to smooth the transition away from the ruble zone.

First, it sought to recover its pre-war gold reserves (about 10 tonnes) from France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, etc.

Lithuania received 18.5 million pounds or 95,000 ounces of gold and remained a customer of the bank.

However, it is estimated that at the time of the introduction of the new currency, Lithuania gathered only $120 million for the stabilisation fund.

Lietuvos Rytas journalists investigated the production of the litas and found that for a while it was purposely held back.

For example, 6 million litas designated to pay for printing the banknotes stayed in a zero interest bearing account for a year in a bank in Sweden.

Newly elected President Algirdas Brazauskas dismissed the Chair of the Bank of Lithuania, Vilius Baldišis, for incompetence just two months before the introduction of the litas.

The newly appointed chair, Romualdas Visokavičius, moved things quickly and won the trust of the public.

Due to poor banknote quality (both talonas and early litas) it was easy to counterfeit them.

Lithuania postponed its euro day several times, since the country did not meet the convergence criteria.

High inflation—which reached 11% in October 2008, well above the then acceptable limit of 4.2%[16]—contributed to Lithuania's failure to meet the criteria.