E£1 — One Pound
The artwork
Front: The mosque of Sultan Qaytbay in Cairo's Northern Cemetery, its slender minaret and ribbed stone dome rising over the burial ground, captioned in Arabic along the lower edge. Everything else is Arabic: the Central Bank of Egypt's name in bold script across the upper right, "جنيه واحد" below it, the Governor's signature over the title المحافظ. Serial numbers in Arabic-Indic figures, with a letter prefix, appear twice. The ground is a dense arabesque of interlocking stars.
Back: The rock-cut façade of the Great Temple at Abu Simbel: the four colossal seated figures of Ramesses II, one toppled at the shoulder, with the smaller family statues at their feet and the temple doorway between. Two royal cartouches in hieroglyphs flank the scene. This side carries the English text — "Central Bank of Egypt" above, "One Pound" below — with diamond-set numerals at the corners and bands of pharaonic relief across top and bottom.
In circulation
The design dates from 1978 and has been reprinted with successive Governors' signatures ever since, making it one of the longest-running Egyptian notes. A one-pound coin introduced in 2005 took over most everyday use, and inflation has since pushed the note to the margins, but it has never been formally withdrawn.
Details
- IssuerCentral Bank of Egypt — البنك المركزي المصري
- CurrencyPound (E£)
- DenominationOne Pound
- Collectedon the Egypt journeys, 1992–1993
- Series1978 design, Sultan Qaytbay mosque / Abu Simbel
- PrinterPrinting House of the Central Bank of Egypt, Cairo
- WatermarkFunerary mask of Tutankhamun
- SignatureGovernor (المحافظ), on the front at right