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 Bank of Egypt issued banknotes for the first time on 3 April 1899. The Central Bank of Egypt and the National Bank of Egypt were unified into the Central Bank of Egypt in 1961. A year later, in 1962, the Egyptian pound ceased to be pegged to the British pound and was tied to the United States dollar instead. Following the institution of the British Mandate for Palestine in 1918, the Egyptian pound was introduced into the area that became known as Palestine, and circulated alongside the "Ottoman lira" until 1927. With the establishment of the Currency Board for Palestine