A Brief History on Egyptian Currency

The Egyptian pound has been through a lot lately between floating, inflation, and economic problems and it still stands its ground but have you ever thought what is the Egyptian pounds’ story? How did it evolve to the version we are used to today?

The first Egyptian currency was introduced in 1834 in the form of gold and silver coins. The unit of which was a piastre. Later in 1836 the first Egyptian pound was introduced. Its value was based on the coins that preceded it and it also came in gold and silver. The pound was made-up of 100 piasters.

In 1885 the two metal system was abolished and the Egyptian pound depended on gold only for its value. The piastre was divided into 10 parts named at first tenth of a piastre then renamed the milim in 1916.

Where did the pound’s name “geneh” come from?

The name derived from a British gold coin called the Guinea coin. Both coins had almost the same value by the end of the 19th century

“In 1885 the Egyptian pound’s value was 7.34 grams of gold

When was the first Egyptian pound paper banknote issued?

In 1899 via the National Bank of Egypt the first paper Egyptian pound was issued. After which the role of issuing currencies was given to the Central Bank of Egypt. In 1967 a specialized Egyptian minting house was established which also printed currency for neighboring countries.

How much was the Egyptian pound worth?

After abandoning the two ore system in 1885 the Egyptian pound was worth approximately 7.34 grams of gold. To compare one Pound Sterling was equal to 0.975 Egyptian pounds. The Egyptian pound and Pound Sterling remained connected until 1962 after which the Egyptian pound was linked to the US dollar which led it to lose some of its initial value so one Egyptian pound was equal to 2.3 USD.

In 1989 the government partially floated the pound and its value depreciated even more to become one USD equals 3.33 EGP