5 Milliemes small Sphinx

Issued during the transitional years immediately following the 1952 Free Officers' Revolution that deposed King Farouk, this series reflects Egypt's rapid repositioning of national iconography away from monarchist symbolism. The sphinx motif was a deliberate reach toward pharaonic antiquity rather than Islamic or dynastic identity — a secular nationalist statement consistent with Nasser's broader political project during the same years he was consolidating power and drafting the 1956 constitution.

The "small sphinx" designation distinguishes it from the earlier, larger-format type, a reduction driven by postwar aluminum bronze allocation pressures across the region.