Guinean franc

The Guinean franc (French: franc guinéen, ISO 4217 code: GNF) is the currency of Guinea.

History

First Guinean franc

The first Guinean franc was introduced in 1959 to replace the CFA franc. There were 1, 5, 10 and 25 francs coins (made of aluminium bronze) with banknotes (dated 1958) in 50, 100, 500, 1000, 5000 and 10,000 francs denominations. A second series of banknotes was issued in 1960, without the 10,000 francs. This second series had the same portrait but with a different colour scheme and reverse designs to the first. A new issue of coins in 1962 was made of cupronickel.

In 1971, the franc was replaced by syli at a rate of 1 syli = 10 francs.

Second Guinean franc

The Guinean franc was reintroduced as Guinea's currency in 1985, at par with the syli. The coins came in denominations of 1, 5 and 10 francs, with 25 francs (1987) and 50 francs (1994) added later. Banknotes were issued in denominations of 25, 50, 100, 500, 1000 and 5000 francs.

A second series issued in 1998 dropped the 25 and 50 francs banknotes, since they had been replaced by coins. 2006, third issue were introduced in denomination of 500, 1000 and 5000 francs that are similar to previous issues. On 11 June 2007, a 10,000 franc was issued.^[1]

Exchange rates

From an average value of about 2500 Guinean francs to the pound sterling during the year 2000, the value of the currency has fallen to a current level (April 2006) of about 8000 to the GBP and about 4500 to the United States dollar. On 21 July 2010, Yahoo! Finance quoted the rate as 5,050 GNF to 1 U.S. dollar.

Note: The official exchange rate and the exchange rate the population uses are different due to the lack of foreign currency in the banks. At Gbessia Airport, this is the rate you should be getting, give or take 200 GNF.

See also

• CFA franc
• Guinean syli
• Economy of Guinea

References

External links

• Banque Populaire Marocaine Guineenne