1 Qirsh

The 1987 qirsh appeared as Sudan was lurching through its third consecutive decade of post-independence monetary instability, with the Sudanese pound under sustained pressure from IMF structural adjustment conditions and the ongoing costs of civil war in the south. The Bank of Sudan had assumed coinage authority following the dissolution of the earlier Currency Board arrangement, and by the mid-1980s was issuing low-denomination coins that saw heavy circulation among a population with limited access to banking infrastructure.

Aluminium bronze was chosen over cupro-nickel partly on cost grounds — a calculation that would become moot within a few years as rampant inflation rendered the qirsh effectively worthless before the decade closed.