The piastre was the currency of Egypt until 1834. It was subdivided into 40 para

Para (currency)

The para was a former currency of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey, Montenegro and Albania, and is the current subunit, although rarely used, of the Serbian dinar....

, each of 3 akçe

Akçe

thumb|250px|AkçeA silver coin, the akçe was the chief monetary unit of the Ottoman Empire. The word "akçe" is derived from the Greek "" , the name of a Byzantine silver or billon coin, current in the region that eventually became the Ottoman Empire. The akçe is hence often called asper in English...

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History

The piastre was based on the Turkish kuruş, introduced while Egypt was part of the Ottoman Empire

Ottoman Empire

The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...

. As in Turkey, debasement lead to the piastre falling significantly in value. In 1834, the pound

Egyptian pound

The Egyptian Pound is the currency of Egypt. It is divided into 100 Qirsh , or 1,000 Milliemes ....

, or gineih (Arabic) was introduced as the chief unit of currency, worth 100 piastre. The piastre continues in use to the present day as a subdivision of the pound.

Coins

In the early 19th century, billon

Billon (alloy)

Billon is an alloy of a precious metal with a majority base metal content . It is used chiefly for making coins, medals, and token coins.The word comes from the French bille....

coins in denominations of 1 akçe, 1, 5, 10 and 20 para, and 1 qirsh were in circulation, along with gold coins denominated as ¼, ½, 1, 2 and 3 mahbub.