The Ugandan shilling
Currency · UGX · 1 country
The Bank of Uganda has issued the shilling since 1966, when the first Ugandan shilling replaced the East African shilling at par. After high inflation a new shilling came in during 1987, worth 100 old ones, and in 2013 the currency dropped its cents altogether. Ugandans still write prices in a notation borrowed from pre-decimal sterling, as 100/=.
No sign of its own
The shilling has no sign of its own. Ugandans write amounts in the style of pre-decimal sterling, shillings before a slash and cents after it, with an equals sign or a hyphen for none: 100/= or 100/-. USh goes in front where the currency needs naming, and UGX is the ISO code.
- ISO code
- UGX
- ISO number
- 800
- Fraction
- None, amounts are whole units
An amount, written out
UGX 1,234
- UGX 1,234English
- USh 1,234EnglishUganda
Where the Ugandan shilling is the official currency
Uganda keeps the shilling for itself. Kenya and Tanzania, which shared the East African shilling with it, set up central banks of their own in the same years.
About the Ugandan shilling
Who took over from the currency board
Before 1966 Uganda used the East African shilling, issued by the East African Currency Board, the arrangement Britain had set up for its territories in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and present-day Somalia. The board had opened a currency centre at Jinja in 1927.
Uganda's cabinet decided on a central bank on 31 January 1965, and on 9 June that year the finance ministers of Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania announced national central banks of their own. Parliament passed the Bank of Uganda Act on 15 May 1966. The bank was formally established on 1 July 1966, and the Act's preamble gave it the job to "issue legal tender currency and maintain external reserves in order to safeguard the international value of that currency". It issued its first coin on 1 January 1967. On 31 March 1967 the currency board's notes stopped being legal tender.
The new bank met trouble within months. When Britain devalued sterling by 14.3% on 17 November 1967, the bank's reserve ratio fell to 36.64%, under the 40% its Act required, and Uganda moved part of its reserves into US dollars. The bank remains the only authority allowed to design and issue Ugandan notes and coins.
How the notes tracked the country's rulers
The first notes of 1966 came in 5, 10, 20 and 100 shillings, with the coat of arms on the three smaller ones and a crested crane on the 100. After Idi Amin took power in a military coup in 1971, notes bearing his portrait went into circulation. Joseph Mubiru, the bank's first governor, was among the people killed under his rule. The series issued after Amin went into exile replaced the portrait with the bank's headquarters building.
High inflation followed, and in 1987 a new shilling replaced the old one at 100 to one. Its notes started at 5 shillings. Higher values kept arriving: 500 and 1,000 in 1991, 5,000 in 1993, 10,000 in 1995, 20,000 in 1999 and 50,000 in 2003, with a 2,000 note added in 2010. By 2005 the low-value notes were taking such a battering in daily use, dirty and sometimes falling apart, that the bank was considering replacing the 1,000 note with a coin.
Why prices end in a slash
The shilling was divided into cents until 2013. Its price notation comes from pre-decimal sterling, which wrote amounts under a pound as shillings and pence. A Ugandan price puts shillings before a slash and cents after it, with an equals sign or a hyphen standing for nothing. Fifty cents was -/50. One hundred shillings is 100/= or 100/-, sometimes with USh in front.
The coins went the same way as the notes. The first shilling had coins from 5 cents to 2 shillings. The new one of 1987 began with 1, 2, 5 and 10 shilling coins, the 5 and 10 shaped as curved heptagons, and added 50, 100, 200 and 500 in 1998. The coins in circulation run from 50 to 1,000 shillings.
Common questions
Questions about the Ugandan shilling
What does /= mean after a price in Uganda?
It means no cents. Ugandan prices put the shillings before the slash and the cents after it, and an equals sign or a hyphen fills the cents place when there are none, so 100/= and 100/- both mean one hundred shillings. The habit comes from pre-decimal British sterling. It outlived the cents themselves, which went in 2013.
Does the Ugandan shilling have cents?
Not any more. The shilling was officially divided into 100 cents until 2013, when inflation had left them without use and the subdivision was dropped. The ISO list gives the shilling no minor unit. The coins in circulation start at 50 shillings, and the notation that once carried cents after the slash now carries only the equals sign or hyphen that stands for zero. Fifty cents used to be written -/50.
Why did Uganda bring in a new shilling in 1987?
High inflation had eroded the first shilling, which had replaced the East African shilling at par in 1966. The new shilling of 1987 was worth 100 old ones. Its first notes ran from 5 to 200 shillings, and inflation soon forced larger values, up to a 50,000 note in 2003.