The Egyptian pound or ‘gineh’ – abbreviated as LE or EGP – crosses counters and circulates through countless hands every day; it enters slots or emerges out of them; it exists in paper and coin form, always at risk of rolling under a car or blowing away in the wind. Money is such an inherent part of our everyday life (unfortunately!), and its fragile existence as we keep having to spend and re-earn this means of exchange in order to get by puts us under a constant strain, although this strain will vary in intensity according to social class. Yet while preoccupied with the present and flooded with headlines about fluctuating exchange rates and devaluations, how often do we actually think about when the Egyptian pound first emerged as a currency; how much did it used to be worth? We only learn from older generations bemoaning increasing fees that “this used to only cost xy!”, as they proceed to cite almost unbelievably low rental costs or transportation fees. Let’s go back a little in time to track some of the currency’s earliest developments… Emergence of the Egyptian Pound Prior to…
Back to the Early Days: A Brief Retrospective of the Egyptian Pound
August 7, 2019
