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 and called δεκάρα in Greek and the -piastre coin was equal to 20 para and called εικοσάρα. The introduction of the British currency into Cyprus was controversial from its inception in 1879 as technically the island remained a province of the Ottoman Empire and the right to issue currency within the Ottoman Empire rested solely with the Ottoman Sultan. A question on the legality of introducing the pound in Cyprus was raised by the British Member of Parliament, Mr. Thomson Hankey, in the United Kingdom parliament in 1879, but concerns were dismissed by the British government, and they ceased to