Piastres or ghirsh and some pronounce it ersh . The origin is German Groschen . The piatres was first minted in Egypt in 1183 AH / 1769 AD during the reign of Ali Bek Al-Kabir . The Piastre's first appearance was made of silver but by time and because of the economic situation of the country some piastres were minted from Bronze and others from copper nickel . The piastre that was made of silver was dubbed silver piastre ersh fadda to distinguish it form the rest of the piastres . During the French Campaign in Egypt the piasters was equal to 40 Fadda or 40 Para . The public dubbed the piastre made of silver 40 Fadda and the piastre made of other metal 40 Para. The old piastre was of two types sagh piastre and trending piastre ( raeg ) . Sagh was equal to 40 Para and the trending piastre was equal to one fourth of the former which means10 Para and after the abolition of the Para and the emergence of milliemes the piastre became equal to 10 milliemes .