Catalog
5 Piastres
| Issuer | Egyptian Government Currency Note |
|---|---|
| Year | 1940 |
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| Printer | Survey of Egypt |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | الجمهورية العربية المتحدة أوراق عملة رسمية خمسة قروش صادرة بمقتضى القانون رقم ٥٠ سنة ١٩٤٠ وزير الخزانة |
| Reverse description | Printed in brown, the reverse is dominated by two large scallop-edged guilloche rosettes of different sizes occupying the left and right fields, with the numeral 5 and the word PIASTRES inscribed within the left rosette. A central panel carries the bilingual inscription ISSUED UNDER LAW No. 50/1940 and EGYPTIAN CURRENCY NOTE in English, with the Arabic issuer name above; a facsimile signature of the Minister of Treasury appears below the central text. |
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| Comments |
The Egyptian Government Currency Notes of this period existed specifically to fill the gap left by the withdrawal of small-denomination coins from circulation — metal was a war material, and by 1940 the demands on copper and nickel made coin production a low priority. The Survey of Egypt, a cartographic and scientific institution, had been pressed into banknote production decades earlier and by this point was a reasonably accomplished security printer despite its unusual institutional origins.
P#180A is distinguished from the closely related P#180 by its signature combination — a detail that matters disproportionately given how similar these wartime small notes appear on cursory inspection.