The pound ( ; abbreviation: LE in Latin, in Arabic, historically also £E; ISO code: EGP) is the official currency of Egypt. It is divided into 100 piastres, or ersh ( ; plural ; abbreviation: PT), or 1,000 milliemes ( ; , abbreviated to m or mill). The new 20 and 10 Egyptian Pounds (LE) are made out of polymer plastic paper on July 6, 2022 History In 1834, a khedival decree was issued, adopting an Egyptian currency based on a bimetallic standard (gold and silver) on the basis of the Maria Theresa thaler, a popular trade coin in the region. The Egyptian pound, known as the , was introduced, replacing the Egyptian piastre () as the chief unit of currency. The piastre continued to circulate as of a pound, with the piastre subdivided into 40 para. In 1885, the para ceased to be issued, and the piastre was divided into tenths ( ). These tenths were renamed milliemes () in 1916. The legal exchange rates were fixed by force of law for important foreign currencies which became acceptable in the settlement of internal transactions. Eventually this led to Egypt using a de facto gold standard between 1885 and 1914, with LE 1 = 7.4375 grammes pure gold. At the outbreak of World War I, the Egyptian pound used a sterling peg of one pound and sixpence sterling to one Egyptian pound (£1 sterling = LE 0.975, or LE 1 = £1/–/6 stg). Egypt remained part of the sterling area until 1962, when Egypt devalued slightly and switched to a peg to the United States dollar, at a rate of LE 1 = US$2.3. This peg was changed to LE 1 = US$2.55555 in 1973 when the dollar was devalued. The Egyptian pound floated in 1989. However, until 2001, the float was tightly managed by the Central Bank of Egypt and foreign exchange controls were in effect. After exhausting all of its policies to support the pound, the Central Bank of Egypt was forced to end the managed-float regime and allowed the currency to float freely on 3 November 2016; the bank also announced an end to foreign exchange controls that day. The official rate fell twofold. The Egyptian pound was also used in Anglo-Egyptian Sudan between 1899 and 1956, and Cyrenaica when it was under British occupation and later an independent emirate between 1942 and 1951. It also circulated