Catalog
5 Piastres
| Issuer | Egyptian Currency Note |
|---|---|
| Year | 1953 |
| Type | Emergency banknote |
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| Obverse description | At right, an intaglio vignette of Queen Nefertiti in left-facing profile is set within a fine-line border frame. Arabic inscriptions naming the issuing authority and denomination occupy the centre, with serial numbers rendered in both Arabic-Indic and Western numerals along the lower margin. A guilloche overprint covers the area at left formerly bearing the King Farouk portrait watermark, applied to remaining stock following Egypt's declaration of a republic. |
|---|---|
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| Protection type | Watermark |
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| Comments |
Egypt's Currency Notes were a parallel instrument to the National Bank's banknotes — issued directly by the government, denominated in small values, and intended for daily transactional use where larger notes rarely appeared. The 5 Piastres series had been running since the 1940s, and by 1953 the political ground had shifted dramatically: the Free Officers' coup of July 1952 had ended the monarchy, and this note falls in the immediate transitional period before the republic was formally consolidated under Naguib and then Nasser.
Survey of Egypt, primarily a cartographic and printing agency, produced the small-denomination currency notes throughout this period — an arrangement reflecting both cost control and the limited capacity of dedicated security printers in Cairo at the time.