Mozambican metical 24,500 meticais per USD, until the Zimbabwean dollar took the title in late August 2005. On July 1, 2006, Mozambique redenominated the metical at a rate of 1000:1. The new ISO 4217 code is MZN. New coins and banknotes were introduced on July 1, 2006, and the transitional period during which both old and new meticais could be used lasted until December 31, 2006. During the conversion, the new currency was locally abbreviated as MTn, but has since largely returned to MT. Old meticais were redeemed by the Bank of Mozambique for a period of six years, until December 31,
African Monetary Union a single currency by 2023. There are two existing regional currency unions in Africa, using the West African CFA franc, and the Central African CFA franc, respectively. Additionally, the Common Monetary Area links several countries in southern Africa based on the South African rand. The African Union's plans for further integration encourage the development of more such regional unions as an intermediate step to full monetary union. One proposed union is the eco, a proposed currency for members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). In 2002, Mansour Ciss and Baruch Gottlieb created a "prototype" currency, called the