5 Piastres

Egypt's wartime Ministry of Finance notes were a direct response to the acute coin shortage created by Allied military demand during the North African campaigns. Silver was being hoarded and melted, and fractional currency simply couldn't stay in circulation fast enough to meet daily needs. These small-denomination paper notes filled that gap — a practical wartime expedient rather than a monetary policy choice.

Printed by the Survey of Egypt, the government's own cartographic and printing bureau, which had handled official document production since the early nineteenth century. Keeping production domestic was both a security and a logistics decision — shipping work abroad during an active war was not an option.