The piastre ( Egyptian: ersh, قرش) was the currency of Egypt . It was subdivided into 40 ''para'', each of 3 '' akçe''.

History

The piastre was based on the Turkish kuruş, introduced while Egypt was part of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

. As in Turkey,

debasement A debasement of coinage is the practice of lowering the intrinsic value of coins, especially when used in connection with commodity money, such as gold or silver coins, while continuing to circulate it at face value. A coin is said to be debased ...

lead to the piastre falling significantly in value. In 1834, the pound, or gineih (Arabic), was introduced as the chief unit of currency, worth 100 piastre. The piastre continues in use to the present day as a subdivision of the pound. The piastre continued to circulate, with the piastre subdivided into 40 para. In 1885, the para ceased to be issued, and the piastre was divided into tenths ( '' 'oshr el-qirsh''). These tenths were renamed milliemes (''malleem'') in 1916.

Coins

In the early 19th century, billon coins in denominations of 1 akçe, 1, 5, 10 and 20 para, and 1 qirsh were in circulation, along with gold coins denominated as ¼, ½, 1, 2 and 3 ''mahbub''.

References

* Ottoman Egypt Economic history of Egypt Modern obsolete currencies Currencies of Egypt 1834 disestablishments Coins of the Ottoman Empire {{coin-stub