Somaliland shilling

Encyclopedia : S : SO : SOM : Somaliland shilling

redirect

The Somaliland shilling (SlSh) is the official currency of the self declared Republic of Somaliland, which has been a de facto-independent state since 1991. It was introduced around October 1994.

Contents

1 Coins
2 Banknotes
3 Exchange rates
4 See also
5 References
6 External links

Coins

The coin with the lowest value is the one shilling coin, first minted in 1994 at the Pobjoy Mint in England and therefore bearing the PM mintmark. In 2002, 2 and 5 shilling coins were issued, bearing depictions of the explorer Sir Richard Burton and of a rooster, respectively. Other coins that have been issued at some point are the 10 shilling coin (depicting a monkey), the 20 shilling coin (depicting a dog), and a silver 1,000 shilling coin (also depicting Sir Richard Burton). The reverse side of the 1,000 shilling coin contains an interesting error: Instead of depicting the Coat of Arms of Somaliland, they depict the Coat of arms of Somalia instead.

Banknotes

Banknotes are issued with denominations of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, and 500 shillings. The front side of the notes has a picture of the Bank of Somaliland (Baanka Somaliland) while the reverse side depicts an image of the Naasa-Hablood (landmark twin-hills located near Hargeisa) and three camels led by a man and a boy. In 1996, banknotes were overprinted with an inscription to commemorate the fifth anniversary of gaining de facto independence.

Exchange rates

The central bank provides exchange services for various currencies at the official government rate, but most people prefer the better, although unofficial, rates provided by the Hawala agents and moneychangers found on the streets of main cities.

In November 2000 the official exchange rate of the Somaliland Central Bank was 4,550 shillings for 1 US dollar. Unofficial exchange rates at the time were fluctuating between 4,000 and 5,000 shillings per dollar.

References

External links

[Postal and Monetary History of British Somaliland]

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.