The Sudanese pound
Currency · SDG · 1 country
The Central Bank of Sudan brought in the present pound in January 2007 because the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement required a new currency reflecting the country's cultural diversity. It replaced the dinar at 100 dinars to the pound and became the only legal tender on 1 July 2007. A third edition followed on 24 July 2011, after South Sudan seceded.
No sign of its own
The pound has no sign of its own. Amounts are written with the abbreviation LS in Latin script, which the Syrian pound shares, and ج.س in Arabic; older texts used £Sd. The code SDG marks the pound of 2007, which followed the SDP and the dinar.
- ISO code
- SDG
- ISO number
- 938
- Subunit
- piastre, 1/100
An amount, written out
SDG 1,234.50
- SDG 1,234.50English
- ١٬٢٣٤٫٥٠ ج.س.ArabicSudan
Where the Sudanese pound is the official currency
Sudan uses it alone now. South Sudan's secession ended its use across the new border, where the pound stayed legal tender only until 31 August 2011.
About the Sudanese pound
Which pounds came before this one
The Egyptian pound was the first pound to circulate in Sudan. In the late nineteenth century the Mahdi and the Khalifa struck their own coins, starting in silver in 1885 and sinking through billon to plain copper before the coinage stopped in 1897. Darfur had a local coinage between 1908 and 1914.
When Anglo-Egyptian rule ended on 1 January 1956, a Sudanese pound replaced the Egyptian one at par. It kept the Egyptian division into 100 piastres, each of 10 millim. A Sudan Currency Board issued the first notes in April 1957, and after the Bank of Sudan Act of 1959 the Bank of Sudan took over the issue.
Why the dinar gave way
On 8 June 1992 the Bank of Sudan replaced the pound with the dinar at ten pounds to the dinar. In the south people went on quoting prices in pounds. An issue manager at the Central Bank told UN television in 2007 that about five currencies were circulating there, and the report named Kenyan, Ethiopian and Ugandan money among them. In 2005 the American broadcaster NPR reported notes in the south carrying the name of a Bank of New Sudan, a bank that does not exist.
The Comprehensive Peace Agreement of 2005 told the Central Bank of Sudan to issue a new currency as soon as practical. The Sudan Currency Printing Press, working since 1994, started printing in September 2006 and was tasked with 1.7 billion notes in six denominations, LS1 to LS50. Donors had promised money for the project during the peace talks. After waiting more than a year and a half the government paid for it out of its own funds. The job took about six months. The press gave the notes themes of peace and prosperity, national unity, industry and natural resources, and the first series went onto Louisenthal's Synthec substrate. People queued at banks to swap their dinars. The deadline was 30 June 2007.
How secession changed the money
The third edition of the pound dates from 24 July 2011, after South Sudan's secession, and the pound stayed legal tender in South Sudan until 31 August that year. The new notes changed their colours, dropped symbols associated with the south and carried a redrawn map of the country. At the end of November 2011 a coin replaced the LS1 note.
On 1 January 2019, during an economic crisis and a cash shortage, the bank announced larger notes. It unveiled a LS100 note on 28 January 2019 and a LS200 on 5 February 2019. A LS500 came out the same year, and a LS1,000 dated June 2019 was issued on 7 June 2022. On 23 February 2021 the bank devalued the official rate to close the gap with the black market.
The coins run from 1 to 50 piastres. The 20 and 50 piastre pieces are bimetallic, and the Central Bank describes them as mirror images: the 20 has a yellow ring round a silver-coloured centre, the 50 the other way round.
Common questions
Questions about the Sudanese pound
Is the Sudanese pound the same as the South Sudanese pound?
No. They are separate currencies. South Sudan established its own pound in 2011, after it seceded, and the Sudanese pound stayed legal tender there only until 31 August 2011. Under the dinar of 1992 the south had gone on quoting prices in pounds, while Kenyan, Ethiopian and Ugandan money also circulated. The Sudanese pound itself was reissued in a third edition on 24 July 2011, with a redrawn map on the notes and the symbols associated with the south taken off.
What does LS stand for on a Sudanese price?
LS is the Latin abbreviation of the Sudanese pound, written before the amount, as in LS50. The Syrian pound uses the same letters. In Arabic the pound is written ج.س, and older sources used £Sd. The ISO code SDG separates the current pound from the first one, SDP.
How many piastres make a Sudanese pound?
One hundred. The pound kept the Egyptian division when Sudan introduced its own currency in 1956, and the piastre is called qirsh in Arabic. The first pound's piastre was split again into 10 millim. Coins of 1 to 50 piastres were issued with the 2007 pound, the 20 and 50 bimetallic.