Competition to ‘Redesign Egypt’s Currency’ Goes Viral

Currency design submission by Muhammed Mahrous

An Egyptian graphic designer is encouraging the public to submit new design ideas for Egypt’s banknotes for a “currency redesign challenge” that has gone viral  on social media.

Reassuring viewers that the competition is not being carried out in an official capacity, the administrators of the competition’s Facebook page said that the idea behind the competition is simply to “showcase Egyptian art and culture through the exchange of visions, understandings and ideas specific to Egyptian designers.”

Many of the submissions feature images that are considered symbols of Egyptian culture, including images of Queen Nefertiti, King Tut and other symbols from Ancient Egypt, while others feature some of Egypt’s more modern leaders, such as Muhammad Ali and Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Some also took the competition as an opportunity to display some Egyptian humor and made popular culture references in their submissions, including one submission that featured Egyptian belly dancer and actress Fifi Abdou on an EGP 5 banknote.

After the challenge gained momentum and made the rounds on social media, the Central Bank of Egypt issued a statement reiterating that the Egyptian Currency Redesign Challenge was not launched under the bank’s auspices and is not an official competition.

You can check out more submissions from the challenge here.