Egyptian pound

The Egyptian pound (Arabic: الجنيه المصرى Al-Junieh Al-Misri) is the current legal currency of the Arab Republic of Egypt. The pound is divided into 100 piastres (qirsh) or 1000 milliemes.

The ISO 4217 code for the Egyptian pound is EGP. Locally, the abbreviation LE, which stands for livre égyptien (French for Egyptian pound) is frequently used. Historically, E£ and £E have also seen unofficial usage. The Arabic name, junieh, may be related to the English name guinea.

History

In 1834, a Royal Decree promulgating a Parliamentary Bill was issued providing for the issuing of an Egyptian currency based on a bimetallic base. In 1836 the Egyptian pound was minted and put into circulation.

The pound was originally divided into 100 piastres, each of 40 para. In 1885, the para ceased to be issued and the piastre was divided into tenths (oshr al-qirsh). These tenths were renamed milliemes in 1916.

The legal exchange rates were fixed by force of law for important foreign currencies which became acceptable in the settlement of internal transactions. Eventually this led to Egypt using a de facto gold standard.

The National Bank of Egypt issued banknotes for the first time on 3 April 1899. The Central Bank of Egypt and the National Bank of Egypt were unified into the Central Bank of Egypt.

Banknotes and coins

Banknotes worth 100, 50, 20, 10, 5, and 1 pounds are in currently circulation, along with notes worth 50, 25, and 10 piasters. All Egyptian banknotes are bilingual, with Arabic texts and Arabic-Indic numerals on one side, and English and European numbers on the other.

Coins, even for the smallest amounts, are encountered much less frequently than notes, but 25, 20, 10, 5, 2, and 1 piastre coins remain legal currency. The most recent 25 piastre coin is holed.

The value of the Egyptian pound compared to the U.S. dollar is 1 Dollar = 5.76 EGP (2005).

Current EGP exchange rates

AUD | CAD | EUR | GBP | INR | NZD | USD

External link

• Central Bank of Egypt
• History of the Egyptian pound