Africa and Australia currency | Currency History

History of algerian currency

admin — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 15:22:52 +0000

Algerian budju

The budju was the currency of Algeria until 1848. It was subdivided into 24 muzuna, each of 2 kharub or 29 asper. It was replaced by the franc when the country was occupied by France.

In the early 19th century, copper coins were issued in denominations of 2 and 5 aspers, billon 1 kharub, silver 3, 4, 6, 8 and 12 muzuna, 1 and 2 budju, and gold ¼, ½ and 1 sultani.

Algerian franc

The franc replaced the budju when France occupied the country. It was equivalent to the French franc and was revalued in 1960 at a rate of 100 old francs = 1 new franc to maintain the equivalence. The new franc was replaced at par by the dinar in 1964 following Algerian independence granted by France in 1962.

The franc was the currency of Algeria between 1848 and 1964. It was subdivided into 100 centimes.

Algerian dinar

The dinar was introduced on 1 April 1964, replacing the Algerian new franc at par. It is the currency of Algeria and it is subdivided into 100 santeem.

In 1964, coins in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20 and 50 santeem, and 1 dinar were introduced, with the 1, 2 and 5 santeem struck in aluminium, the 10, 20 and 50 santeem in aluminium bronze and the 1 dinar in cupro-nickel. The obversesshowed the emblem of Algeria, while the reverses carried the values in Eastern Arabic numerals. In later decades, coins were issued sporadically with various commemorative subjects

The post History of algerian currency first appeared on Currency History.

History of Australian Currency

admin — Mon, 25 Aug 2014 11:57:56 +0000

With the establishment of the first colony of New South Wales in 1788, the need for currency soon became apparent. Convicts received no wages and the early settlers and military personnel had their needs supplied from communal stores. With only a small quantity of English and foreign coins brought with the First Fleet, most of the dealings in the first few years consisted of bartering, with rum being the main means of exchange.

Handwritten notes of credit, issued by government officials and backed by the English treasury, were a common form of currency, but these were subject to counterfeiting and devaluation. The earliest currency used was English money, and also the Spanish dollar brought by the early ships. Because of the shortage of English money, and to prevent the Spanish dollars being taken back on the ships, Governor Macquarie had their centres cut out and they became known as ‘holey dollars’, while the cores became ‘dumps’. In 1813 they had “New South Wales 1813” stamped on them, with “Five Shillings” on the reverse side. The ‘dump’ had “New South Wales 1813” stamped on their cleaned and smoothed surface with “Fifteen Pence” on the reverse side.

In 1817 the Bank of New South Wales was established. The first issue of banknotes comprised five shillings, ten shillings, one pound and five pounds and paper tokens for one shilling, one shilling and sixpence, two shillings, and two shillings and sixpence. In 1825 the British Government imposed the sterling standard throughout its Empire and English coins were minted in Australia.

In 1901, following Federation, the British silver and bronze coins continued in use but in 1910 Australian Commonwealth siver coins were introduced. In 1911 bronze pennies and halfpennies were introduced. In 1913 the first series of Australian notes was issued, based on the old British sterling system.

Decimal currency was introduced on 14 February 1966. Dollars and cents replaced the pounds, shillings and pence. The new coinage consisted of silver and bronze. In 1996 Australia’s paper based notes were converted to polymer in an effort to prevent counterfeiting. The technology which produced the notes was developed in Australia. The 5c, 10c, 20c and 50c coins are made of 75% copper and 25% nickel. The $1 and $2 coins are made of 92% copper, 6% aluminium and 2% nickel.

With pounds, shillings and pence to be replaced by decimal currency on 14 February 1966, many names for the new currency were suggested. In 1965, the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, a monarchist, wished to name the currency the royal. Other proposed names included more exotic suggestions such as the austral, the oz, the boomer, the roo, the kanga, the emu, the digger, the Quid.

In 1967, Australia effectively left the sterling area, when the pound sterling was devalued against the US dollar and the Australian dollar did not follow. It maintained its peg to the US dollar at the rate of A$1 = US$1.12.
On 27 September 2012, the Reserve Bank of Australia stated that they had ordered work on a project to upgrade the current notes. It stated this was necessary because of the addition of many new security features but declined to state any. It is expected to take several years for the notes to be issued.

The post History of Australian Currency first appeared on Currency History.

History of First East African shilling

admin — Sun, 24 Aug 2014 17:50:27 +0000

The pound sterling was originally divided into twenty shillings, and it is normal to consider the shilling sterling to be a subsidiary unit of the pound. However, in British East Africa, even though twenty shillings were equal in value to one pound sterling, the shilling was always taken to be the primary unit of account. This state of affairs was unique amongst all the parts of the British Empire that used the sterling currency.
This anomalous state of affairs arose because British East Africa was actually originally in the rupee zone and not in the sterling zone. The East African shilling was introduced to Kenya, Tanganyika (now mainland Tanzania), and Uganda in 1921, replacing the short-lived florin at a rate of 2 shillings = 1 florin. The short lived Florin had been brought about as a result of the rising price of silver which occurred in the wake of World War I. At that time, the Indian Rupee was the currency of the British East African states. The Rupee, being a silver coin rose in value against sterling. When it reached the value of two shillings, the authorities decided to replace it with the Florin. From the florin thence came the East African shilling. The currency remained pegged to one shilling sterling and was subdivided into 100 cents. In 1936, Zanzibar joined the currency board, and the Zanzibari rupee was replaced at a rate of 1.5 East African shillings = 1 Zanzibari rupee. It was replaced by local currencies (Kenyan shilling, Ugandan shilling and Tanzanian shilingi) following the colonies’ independence.
In 1951, the East African shilling replaced the Indian Rupee in the Aden colony and protectorate, which became the South Arabian Federation in 1963. In 1965, the East African Currency Board was breaking up, and the South Arabian dinar replaced the shilling in the South Arabian Federation at a rate of 20 shillings to 1 dinar.
The shilling was also used in parts of what is now Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea when they were under British control. Before 1941, these areas, then known as Italian East Africa were using the Italian East African lira. In 1941, as a result of World War II, Britain regained control and introduced the shilling, at a rate of 1 shilling to 24 lira. Italian Somaliland was returned to Italy in 1949 as a UN Trusteeship and soon switched to the Italian Somaliland somalo, which was at par with the shilling. British Somaliland gained independence in 1960, and joined what had been Italian Somaliland to create Somalia. In that year Somalia began using the Somali shilling (replacing the Somali somalo) at par with the East African shilling. The East African shilling ceased to be legal tender in Somalia during 1961. Ethiopia regained independence in 1941, with British support and began using the East African shilling. Maria Theresa Thalers, Indian rupees, and Egyptian pound were also legal tender at the beginning of this time, and it is unclear exactly when this status ended. Full sovereignty was restored in late 1944, and the Ethiopian birr was reintroduced in 1945 at a rate of 1 birr = 2 shillings. Eritrea was captured from the Italians in 1941, and began using the East African shilling, as well as the Egyptian pound, with the lira demonetized in 1942. When Eritrea formed a federation with Ethiopia in 1952, the birr, which was already in use in Ethiopia, was adopted in Eritrea.
For a wider history surrounding currency in the region, see The History of British Currency in the Middle East.

The post History of First East African shilling first appeared on Currency History.

History of Egyptian Pound

admin — Sun, 24 Aug 2014 11:46:11 +0000

Since the beginning of the circulation of silver and gold coins in Egypt and until 1834, no specified monetary unit existed to serve as a basis for the monetary system. Only a few of the coins were minted locally. In 1834, a Decree was promulgated providing for issuing an Egyptian currency based on a bimetallic base, gold and silver. In 1836 the Egyptian pound was minted and put into circulation.
The Monetary Reform Law issued in 1885 which set gold standard to become the basis for the Egyptian monetary system, and the country had a unified currency, the Egyptian gold pound.
It was permitted to use some foreign gold coins, particularly the Sterling pound, at fixed legal rates. The Sterling gold pound, which was valued at more than its gold content compared to other foreign gold coins, became the main medium of exchange, and the Egyptian monetary system was based on the Sterling gold standard.
In 1898 the National Bank of Egypt was established and was granted, by the government, the privilege to issue Egyptian banknotes, payable in gold for a period of 50 years. The National Bank of Egypt started issuing banknotes on the 3rd of April 1899.
Consequently, the currency circulated in Egypt consisted of gold Sterling pounds and Egyptian banknotes convertible into gold. This situation continued up to 1914 when a special Decree was issued making Egyptian banknotes a legal tender and suspending their convertibility into gold. Thus, the Egyptian pound banknote became the basic currency unit, and the base of the Egyptian monetary system was changed to fiduciary paper money standard. Accordingly, gold coins were no longer used in circulation, with the result that the volume of note issue increased from LE 11.6 million at the end of 1915 to LE 3557.0 million at the end of 1980, and further to LE 38320.0 million at the end of 1999. In 1930, for the first time in the history of Egyptian banknotes, a watermark was used in issued banknotes. This was followed, towards the end of 1968, by using a metallic thread (in notes issued by the Central Bank of Egypt) as a guarantee against counterfeit instead of dependence on complexity of colors .Other features against counterfeit were found in the detailed specifications of each currency. Holograms are currently added to large denomination notes.
In July 1960 the Central Bank of Egypt was established and granted the right of issuing Egyptian banknotes. Several changes were introduced with respect to the watermark, the designs shown on the notes and the colors.
The Central bank of Egypt established a printing plant for banknotes in 1968 instead of printing them abroad. The Bank also served some Arab central banks in printing their banknotes.
In 1977 The Central Bank of Egypt issued notes of 20 and 100 pounds in 1979 and 50 pounds in 1993.

The post History of Egyptian Pound first appeared on Currency History.