Decimal Day Board. Consideration was given to introducing a new major unit of currency worth ten shillings in the old currency: suggested names included the "new pound", the "royal" and the "noble". This would have resulted in the "decimal penny" being worth only slightly more than the old penny (this approach was adopted, for example, when South Africa, Australia and New Zealand decimalised in the 1960s, adopting respectively the South African rand, Australian dollar and New Zealand dollar equal in value to 10 shillings). But Halsbury decided, in view of the pound sterling's importance as a reserve currency, that the pound should
British currency in the Middle East British colonies, including Hong Kong from 1863 to 1866; and the British Palestine Mandate from 1926 until 1948. The Palestinian example may in fact have been the impetus to use a pound-mil system in Cyprus as the Palestinian pound was for a brief period accepted as legal tender in Cyprus. Although Cyprus gained independence from Britain in 1960, the Cyprus pound remained pegged to the pound sterling until 1972. The origins of the Egyptian pound date from 1834, when a Khedival Decree was issued providing for the issuing of an Egyptian currency based on a bimetallic base, i.e.: based on