10 Piastres

The Egyptian Currency Note series — issued directly by the Ministry of Finance rather than the National Bank — has its roots in a wartime fiscal decision. During the First World War, small-denomination coinage became scarce as metal was diverted, and the ministry stepped in to fill the gap with low-value paper issues that functioned more like fractional currency than conventional banknotes. That administrative arrangement persisted for decades, long after the original rationale had expired.

The Survey of Egypt, originally established as a cartographic and geodetic agency, took on banknote printing as a secondary function — an unusual institutional arrangement that made Egypt one of the few countries where a mapping authority printed circulating currency.