The Egyptian pound (Arabic: gineh) is the current legal currency of the Arab Republic of Egypt. The Egyptian pound is divided into 100 piastres (or piasters) or 1000 milliemes.

The ISO 4217 code for the Egyptian pound is EGP. Locally, the abbreviation "LE" is frequently used.

History

In 1834, a Decree was promulgated providing for issuing an Egyptian currency based on a bimetallic base. In 1836 the Egyptian pound was minted and put into circulation.

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 April 3 1899.

The Central Bank of Egypt and the National Bank of Egypt were unified into the Central Bank of Egypt .

External link

• http://www.cbe.org.eg/1historical_review_for_currency.htm