Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1921.djvu/324

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THE BRITISH EMPIRE : — EGYPT

nickel, and ^ piece in bronze. Silver coin is legal tender only up to £E2, and nickel or bronze coins up to 10 piastres. 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 974 piastres. The gold pieces of the Latin Monetary Union equivalent to the French 20 franc piece are permitted to circulate at a uniform rate of £E07715.

Bank notes are issued by the National Bank in various denominations from £E0 - 25 to £E100. They are in principle not legal tender, but since the war they have been made legal tender and inconvertible. Their circulation has received an extraordinary impetus since the withdrawal of gold from circulation. The amount issued at the end of 1919 was about £E67,000,000, whereas it had never previous to the war surpassed £E3,000,000. In 1918 the Egyptian Government issued Currency Notes of 10 piastres and 5 piastres.

Egyptian money is now minted at the Birmingham and other foreign Mints. The nominal value of the coinage (including recoinage) from 1887 to 1919 was :—

Years

Gold

Silver

Nickel

Broim Total

£E.

£E. 4,114,390

695,400 1,115,399 1,171,400

555,915 33,400

7,685,904

£E.

474,656 5,000 20,000 61.000 93,437 49,680

101,800

£E. £K.

1S87-1913

1914

1915

1016

1917

1918

1919

52,024 10,000

20,724 1,000

2,000

4,661,794

6,000

715,400

1,186,390

1,266.837

605,595

135,200

1887-1919

62,024

806,573

23,724

8,577,2--';>

The principal units of Egyptian weights and measures are denned in terms of the metre of the " Commission Internationale du metre " by the Law No. 10 of September 26, 1914. The equivalents remain the same as were defined by the Decree of April 28, 1891.

Measures of length : Diraa baladi ,, weight : Dirhem

,, capacity : Ardeb

— metre 58 centimetres. = 3 grams 12 centigrams. = 198 litres.

Measure of Capacity.

The Ardeb is equal to 43 "555 gallons, or 5 -44436 bushels. The approximate weight of the ardeb is as follows •.—Wheat, 334 rotls ; beans, 345rotls ; barley, 267 rotls ; maize, 312 rotls ; cotton seed, 270.

Weights.

Okieh

Rotl

Oke

1*3207 ounce. •99049 lb. 27513 lbs.

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