Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1913.djvu/1461

 MONEY, WEIGHTS, AND MEASURES 1389

Money, Weights, and Measures

Money.

By decree of November 14, 1885 (7 SefFer 1303), the monetary unit of Egypt is the gold Egyptian pound of 100 piastres. It weighs 8*5 grammes •875 fine, and therefore contains 7*4375 grammes of fine gold. Its value in sterling is £1 Os. 6ld.

The 10-piastre silver piece weighs 14 grammes '833 fine, and therefore contains 11 67 giammes of fine silver. The piastre is worth 2'i6d. in English money. It is subdivided into tenths (ochrel guerche).

Coins in circulation are the Egyptian pound (100 piastres) in gold ; 20, 10, 5, 2 and 1 piastre pieces in silver ; 1, i, ^, ^V piastre pieces in nickel, and tjV and ^V piastre pieces in bronze. Silver coin is legal tender only up to £E2. For some years gold coins have not been issued, and the gold circulating in Egypt and the Sudan is almost exclusively English sovereigns, which are legal tender at the rate of 97^ piastres.

Egyptian money is now minted at the Birmingham Mint. The nominal value of the coinage (including recoinage) from 1887 to 1911 was : —

Years

Gold

!

52,024

Silver

Nickel

£B.

412,366 15,000 20,653

448,019

Bronze

Total

1887-1909

1910

1911

£E.

3.537,907

60,117

329,909

^E.

16,224 1,500 1,500

£E.

4,018,521

76,617

352,062

18S7-1911

52,024

3,927,933

19,224

4,447,200

By a decree of the Khedive, dated April 28 1891, the metrical system of weights and measures was ordered to be employed in all public and adminis- trative transactions from January 1, 1892.

I'

Measuee of Capacity,

The Ardeh is equal to 43*579 gallons, or 5*44739 bushels. The approximate weight of the ardeb is as follows : — Wheat, 315 rotls ; beans, 320rotls ; barley, 250 rotls ; maize, 315 rotls ; cotton seed, 270.

Weights.

Okieh ... = 1-3206 ounce.

Roll. . . . = •99049 1b. Oke. . . . ^- 2-7513 lbs.

Tpr, for 100 Rotls 0X\ nn.n^noiu

Kantar^^ 36 Okes /^ 99 0492 lbs. Length Measures.

Inches Diraa Baladi (town). . . -. . — 22-8350 Diraa Mimari £oT hnilding, kc. . . — 29 5281 Kassabah = S -88 jSiTds .... - 139-7663

Measukhs of Surface.

Feddan, the unit of measure for land, = 7,468 148 sq. pics= 1 '03808 acres 1 sq. pic = 6 05 sq. ft. = -562 sq. metre.