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Currency history

Egyptian pound

Dates in use
Still in use; introduction date not established here
Currency code
EGP
Ancestry branch
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Its place in the family

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Egyptian pound: documented and qualified family connections PARENTS THIS CURRENCY CHILDREN Libyan dinarLibyan dinar 1952 · DocumentedDocumented connection · 1952 Syrian poundSyrian pound 1920–1924 · DocumentedDocumented connection · 1920–1924 Sudanese pound before the dinarSudanese pound before thedinar 1957 · DocumentedDocumented connection · 1957 Egyptian poundEgyptian pound EGP Earlier ancestry is not established here.

The diagram shows up to three parents and three children. Every direct connection is listed below.

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Earlier ancestry is not established here.

Egyptian pound

This currency

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The story

The National Bank of Egypt first issued banknotes on April 3, 1899, according to the central bank's currency history. [1]

Egyptian pound → Libyan pound, Cyrenaica, 1952. [2]

The November 14, 1885 decree defines Egypt’s pound as 100 piastres and temporarily retains earlier silver at official tariff. [3]

Turning points

Egyptian medin/para accounting attested in 1524 is grouped with the later local…

Egyptian medin/para accounting attested in 1524 is grouped with the later local piastre/pound identity as a qualified continuity inference. Late-eighteenth-century medin/para prices and nineteenth-century piastre subdivisions bridge the scales; unresolved regional details are not presented as a complete legal sequence. [4]

Egyptian documents used a fictive riyal of 90 paras for transactions and…

Egyptian documents used a fictive riyal of 90 paras for transactions and government accounts, expressly distinguishing it from circulating foreign coins. [5]

Browne’s Egyptian observations of 1792–1798 describe public allocations in…

Browne’s Egyptian observations of 1792–1798 describe public allocations in piastres and expenses in paras, also called medines. This is dated local accounting evidence, not a currency founding date. [6]

The Egyptian piastre represented 40 paras; government accounts increasingly used…

The Egyptian piastre represented 40 paras; government accounts increasingly used piastres toward mid-century. The purse represented 20,000 paras or 500 piastres. [7]

The 1834 reform retained a silver piastre divided into forty paras; the 1885…

The 1834 reform retained a silver piastre divided into forty paras; the 1885 reform expressed the pound as one hundred piastres and changed the smaller subdivisions. Continuity of the nineteenth-century local account system is supported. [8]

The November 14, 1885 decree expressly defines the Egyptian monetary unit as the…

The November 14, 1885 decree expressly defines the Egyptian monetary unit as the pound, divided into 100 piastres, with 10 tenths per piastre. Earlier Egyptian silver remained receivable under its official tariff during withdrawal. [9]

Sources and evidence

  1. Central Bank of Egypt · History Brief
  2. Deutsche Bundesbank · Metadata on the Exchange Rate Statistics, 24 September 2025; Central Bank of Libya · Exchange Rate Policy
  3. Egypt monetary reform decree14November 1885 · Egypt monetary reform decree14November 1885, translated in US Director of Mint 1886 report
  4. Şevket Pamuk · Şevket Pamuk, A Monetary History of the Ottoman Empire, Cambridge 2000; William George Browne · Travels in Africa, Egypt, and Syria,1792–1798 (1799); Antoine Barthélémy Clot-Bey · Aperçu général sur l’Égypte, tomeII (1840); Abdel Nabi Hassan Youssef · Le Régime Monétaire de l’Égypte depuis la Première Guerre Mondiale (1960)
  5. Kenneth M. Cuno · The Pasha’s Peasants: Land, Society, and Economy in Lower Egypt,1740–1858 (Cambridge 1992)
  6. William George Browne · Travels in Africa, Egypt, and Syria,1792–1798 (1799)
  7. Kenneth M. Cuno · The Pasha’s Peasants: Land, Society, and Economy in Lower Egypt,1740–1858 (Cambridge 1992)
  8. Abdel Nabi Hassan Youssef · Le Régime Monétaire de l’Égypte depuis la Première Guerre Mondiale (1960); Antoine Barthélémy Clot-Bey · Aperçu général sur l’Égypte, tomeII (1840); Egypt monetary reform decree14November 1885 · Egypt monetary reform decree14November 1885, translated in US Director of Mint 1886 report
  9. Egypt monetary reform decree14November 1885 · Egypt monetary reform decree14November 1885, translated in US Director of Mint 1886 report

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“Egyptian pound.” The Family Tree of Money. © Field Technologies, Inc. Updated 2026-10-14; data version v49. https://familytreeofmoney.org/currency/FTM000375.html

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