The Mauritanian ouguiya
Currency · MRU · 1 country
Mauritania left the CFA franc for a currency of its own in 1973, at five francs to the ouguiya, and cut ten old ouguiya down to one new one on 1 January 2018. The Central Bank of Mauritania issues it. An ouguiya divides into five khoums, one of two circulating currencies whose fractions are not a power of ten.
No sign of its own
No single character stands for the ouguiya. Its sign is the pair of Latin letters UM, written after the amount as in 100 UM, while the ISO code has been MRU since ten old ouguiya became one in 2018. MRO, the old code, belongs to the first ouguiya.
- ISO code
- MRU
- ISO number
- 929
- Subunit
- khoums, 1/100
An amount, written out
MRU 1,234.50
- MRU 1,234.50English
- ١٬٢٣٤٫٥٠ أ.م.ArabicMauritania
Where the Mauritanian ouguiya is the official currency
Mauritania is the member, served by the Central Bank of Mauritania, which moved the ISO code from MRO to MRU with the new notes of 2018.
About the Mauritanian ouguiya
Why Mauritania left the franc
Before 1973 Mauritania paid in the CFA franc and belonged to the BCEAO. It left on 28 November 1972 and created a national currency, exchanged at five CFA francs to one ouguiya. The ouguiya began as fiat money on 28 June 1973, and the Central Bank of Mauritania issued its first notes, for 100, 200 and 1,000 ouguiya, the same year.
The name comes from the Hassaniya Arabic pronunciation of uqiyyah, the ounce. It was once spelled ougiya.
How the khoums came about
The fraction was a matter of arithmetic in 1973. An ouguiya was worth five CFA francs, so a fifth of one, the khoums, matched the old franc. The khoums was minted that year alone, in a set of coins running from the fifth up to 20 ouguiya. By May 2026 Wikipedia described the unit as effectively obsolete, its purchasing power close to nothing and its coins out of use. The ISO list still gives the ouguiya two minor units.
Coins for the first ouguiya were struck at the Kremnica mint in Slovakia. A smaller plated 1 ouguiya and a bimetallic 20 appeared in 2009, and a bimetallic 50 in December 2010. Giesecke and Devrient in Munich printed the notes from the second series of 1974 onwards.
Why ten ouguiya became one
On 5 December 2017 the central bank announced a redenomination at ten to one, naming lower inflation and a smaller risk of forgery as its reasons. New notes and coins entered circulation on 1 January 2018, and the ISO code changed from MRO to MRU, number 929.
The new coins run from one khoums to 20 ouguiya, with the 20 struck in three metals. The new notes, of 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1,000 ouguiya, were printed entirely in polymer, by the Canadian Bank Note Company in Ottawa according to the central bank's announcement of December 2017. Their fronts show mosques, among them those of Oualata, Ouadane, Tichit and Chinguetti, and the backs show cattle, camels, a trawler and an ore train. A 20 ouguiya note joined the coin of the same value on 13 December 2021.
What the central bank tested on the fifty
In June 2023, fifty years after the currency first circulated, the bank issued a new 50 ouguiya note in three varieties of slightly different material, told apart by the first letter of the serial number. It said the aim was to find out which composition suited Mauritania's climate and its users best.
A further 50 ouguiya note was reported in circulation in July 2025. La Dépêche de Mauritanie described it as cotton paper, chosen after research begun in 2023 to stand up to wear, dirt and humidity, with a micro-optic ribbon showing the Eye of the Sahara and the Chinguetti mosque.
Common questions
Questions about the Mauritanian ouguiya
Why is the ouguiya divided into five?
When Mauritania swapped the CFA franc for the ouguiya in 1973, one ouguiya was worth five francs. A fifth of an ouguiya, the khoums, was therefore worth exactly one old franc, and the split survived the change. The Malagasy ariary is the other circulating currency divided in a way that is not a power of ten.
What is the difference between MRO and MRU?
MRO is the code of the first ouguiya, issued from 1973. On 1 January 2018 the central bank replaced it with a new ouguiya worth ten of the old ones, and ISO amended the code to MRU with the number 929. The redenomination had been announced on 5 December 2017, with inflation and forgery named as the reasons. New polymer notes and new coins came with it.
Is the khoums still used?
Barely. A one khoums coin was issued again with the new currency in 2018, in copper-plated steel with a fish on the reverse, but by May 2026 Wikipedia described the unit as effectively obsolete and the coins as fallen out of use.