Historical Sketch

In 1821, Ottoman Egypt reached southward and conquered the Sudan territory, which had been under nominal Ottoman suzerainty already before. In the late 1870s, revolts broke out during which a political-religious leader, Muhammad Ahmad, proclaimed himself Mahdi (envoy) and established an Islamic rule. The Mahdi State conquered the Sudan and neighboring Darfur. The Mahdi himself died briefly after the fall of Khartoum in 1885, but the Mahdi State continued to exist until 1898, when it was crushed by British-Egyptian forces. Subsequently, the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan was created as a condominium. The Sultanate of Darfur managed to initially escape the British-Egyptian rule and regain independence until it got absorbed in 1916. The condominium remained in place after Egypt's independence in 1922, and only the Egyptian revolution of 1952 brought an end to it. In the following year, Great Britain and now republican Egypt agreed to withdraw, and beginning of 1956, Sudan attained independence. In the 1970s, a civil war broke out in the southern part. The central government finally got defeated, and the 2005 peace agreement paved the way for the creation of South Sudan in 2011.

Monetary History Overview

The Egyptian conquerers brought their currency system into Sudan. The Mahdi State of 1885 initially issued a small amount of silver coins in the Egyptian standard. But soon, inflation set in, and the coinage rapidly deteriorated from debased silver to pure copper. The sub-standard coins of the local mint at Omdurman was labelled "new currency". The downfall of the Mahdi State in 1899 brought a quick return of the Egyptian currency system. The same happened in the Sultanate of Darfur in 1916. During its short independence, no currency system was put in place, just a few crude debased silver coins were produced in Al-Fasher.

Less than a year after independence in 1956, Sudan established a Currency Board and introduced the 1st Sudanese Pound as national currency. It was pegged to the Pound Sterling, the initial parity with the Egyptian Pound lasted until 1962, when Sudan did not follow the Egyptian devaluation. Sudan did not follow the Sterling devaluation of 1967 either and repegged to the US Dollar. This remained unchanged until 1978, when the official rate underwent a series of devaluations, and an effective rate was created for non-governmental commercial activities. In 1981, the rate structure was unified, and the Pound got devalued in steps by 80% during the 1980s. The remaining overvaluation was eliminated by a 95% cut in early 1992. In the same year, a currency reform was carried out in which one zero was eliminated, the currency name of Sudanese Dinar indicated a turn towards the Arab-Islamic past, therefore rejected by the non-muslim population of the south. Since the 1970s, the South Sudanese People's Liberation Movement had gradually obtained control over the territory. In their areas, the currency reform was not carried out, and the Pound remained in circulation. The Dinar continuously lost value during the civil war until in 2000, after 95% of the currency value had gone already, a stabilization could be achieved. In 2005, the parties to the civil war agreed on the Nairobi "Comprehensive Peace Agreement". One of the clauses stipulated the abolition of the Dinar, saying the "...the design of the new currency shall reflect the cultural diversity of Sudan". This was implemented in the January 2007 currency reform. Two zeros were cut, and the new currency's name, 2nd Sudanese Pound, returned to the roots. The currency exchange was carried out within six months, also in all the territories that had not introduced the Dinar in 1992, such that a single Sudanese currency was re-established. In July 2011, the southern part finally seceded and formed the independent Republic of South Sudan. Three weeks later, Sudan carried out an exchange of banknotes exclusively on its territory, thus invalidating any cash holdings in South Sudan or elsewhere. The Pound gradually lost around 50% of its value during the 2010s. In 2018, the exchange rate was liberalized and immediately dropped by 85%. After a brief stabilization, the Pound has lost another 90% of value during the first 2020s.

Sudan joined the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on 05.09.1957.

Currency Units Timeline

Currency Institutes Timeline

Monetary History Sources