Egypt's new 'copycat' 10 pound note greeted with derision on social media

Egypt’s central bank on Tuesday announced a new series of polymer bank notes, which will circulate along with currently used paper notes for the time being.

The Egyptian government says the aim of the new bank notes is to raise the quality of money in circulation and cut printing costs.

However, the design of the new notes was almost immediately criticised by Egyptian social media users who pointed the strong similarity between the new Egyptian 10 pound note to the currently circulating British 10 pound note.

So in producing a polymer 10 Egyptian pound note to avoid counterfeits, the Central Bank of Egypt appears to have opted to counterfeit the font used by the Bank of England on its 10 pound note. They never cease to outdo our lowest expectations.

HT @TheChex__ for catching this pic.twitter.com/EQ7tA08ZWY

— Timothy E Kaldas (@tekaldas) July 5, 2022

The new Egyptian note uses very similar colours and writing to the British 10 pound note.

It also depicts ancient Egyptian Queen Hatshepsut and social media users mockingly pointed out the similarity of the size and poise of her head on the note to that of British Queen Elizabeth II on the UK 10 pound note.

One Twitter account, using the name “Madaniya”, even uploaded designs for a new series of bank notes, saying “On the occasion of the theft of the design of new ten pound note from the ten pound sterling note, here are some new designs made by youths from their own efforts, which they uploaded to social media.”

بمناسبة سرقة تصميم العشرة جنيه الجديدة من ال العشرة بوند إسترليني
دي تصميمات اتعملت من فترة لشباب بمجهود شخصي ونشروها علي السوشيال pic.twitter.com/Dtz4BxNb0K

— مد🇪🇬🇪🇬نية (@SecuEgy) July 5, 2022

The reverse of the new note features the giant Al-Fattah Al-Aleem Mosque, which was recently constructed in the controversial New Administrative Capital which is being built by the Egyptian government east of Cairo.

This was also the subject of criticism, with social media users saying that an image of one of Egypt’s many historic mosques and religious buildings should have been used instead.

The new Egyptian 10 pound note currently has a value of less than one-twentieth that of its British counterpart.

Good news: Central Bank of Egypt launches the first polymer 10 pound note

Bad news: it has the new capital’s megalomaniac newly constructed mosque on it. They can’t find anything in our ancient and Islamic history it seems! pic.twitter.com/yujTdUp5Lf

— The Big Pharaoh (@TheBigPharaoh) July 5, 2022