The khoums (singular and plural in English; ar, خمس, "fifth") is the subdivisory unit of the Mauritanian monetary system, the

ouguiya The ouguiya ( ar, rtl=yes, 1=أوقية موريتانية, links=, lit=, translit= (); sign: UM; code: MRU), at one time spelled "ougiya", is the currency of Mauritania. Each ouguiya constitutes five khoums (meaning "one fifth"). As such it is ...

. Five khoums make an ouguiya, hence one khoums can be expressed as 0.2 ouguiya. When the ouguiya was adapted in 1973, it replaced the

CFA franc The CFA franc (french: franc CFA, , Franc of the Financial Community of Africa, originally Franc of the French Colonies in Africa, or colloquially ; abbreviation: F.CFA) is the name of two currencies, the West African CFA franc, used in eight We ...

as 5 francs to the ouguiya, thus a khoums was equal to the franc. As the franc had no subdivisional unit, all wealths in francs could be converted to ouigiya with no rounding. On the khoums coin (minted in Kremnica Mint,

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

), the obverse is in

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

with the date of the

Islamic calendar The Hijri calendar ( ar, ٱلتَّقْوِيم ٱلْهِجْرِيّ, translit=al-taqwīm al-hijrī), also known in English as the Muslim calendar and Islamic calendar, is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 ...

and the reverse in French in the

Gregorian calendar The Gregorian calendar is the calendar used in most parts of the world. It was introduced in October 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII as a modification of, and replacement for, the Julian calendar. The principal change was to space leap years dif ...

with national arms on each side, identical to all other Mauritanian coins. However, on the Arabic side, instead of a

number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers c ...

like on the other coins, the word is used.http://worldcoingallery.com/countries/coine.php?image=img13/119-1&desc=Mauritania km1 1/5 Ouguiya (1973)&query=Mauritania The khoums is one of only two subdivisions of currency that are not in a multiple of ten, the other being the Malagasy

iraimbilanja The iraimbilanja (singular and plural) is the divisory currency unit of Madagascar, being equal to one fifth of an ariary The ariary (sign: Ar; ISO 4217 code MGA) is the currency of Madagascar. It is notionally subdivided into 5 ''iraimbilanja'' ...

, also based on the

franc The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (King of the Franks) used on early French coins and until the 18th centu ...

. the value of one khoums is about US$0.0055/.55 ¢.

References

Economy of Mauritania {{Money-unit-stub