5 Ouguiya small type

Mauritania's ouguiya is one of only two world currencies not based on the decimal system — divided into 5 khoums rather than 100 subunits, a structure rooted in traditional West African exchange ratios predating colonial monetary organization. The "small type" designation distinguishes this issue from the physically larger earlier brass pieces, a reduction carried out by the Banque Centrale as a cost-control measure during a period when global commodity prices made the original planchet specifications increasingly uneconomical.

Brass-plated steel replaced solid brass beginning with this type, a substitution common across Sahelian nations during the late 2000s commodity spike.