/pee as"teuhr, -ah"steuhr/ , n.
1. a former coin of Turkey, the 100th part of a lira: replaced by the kurus in 1933.
2. a monetary unit of Egypt, Lebanon, Sudan, and Syria, the 100th part of a pound.
3. a former monetary unit of South Vietnam: replaced by the dong in 1976.
4. the former peso or dollar of Spain and Spanish America.
Also, piastre .
[ 1605-15; piastre piastra thin sheet of metal, silver coin (short for piastra d'argento, lit., plate of silver), akin to piastro PLASTER ]