The Sudanese used the barter system to exchange goods among individuals then they used beads and stones as mediums and substitute for currencies in commercial deals until the Egyptian forces under the rule of Muhammad Ali entered Sudan and put it under the rule of Egypt . It was nothing but normal then that the Sudanese monetary system would be the same as the Egyptian thus Egyptian currency started circulating in Sudan as main currency .

During the attempt of Gordon Pasha to evacuate the Egyptian forces from Sudan after the victories of El-Mahdy revoltion the siege of the forces in Khartoum and the cutting of the supply lines the treasury ran short of currency so on April 25th 1884AD he issued treasury bonds to bearer to be cashed from the treasury of Khartoum or Egypt . After the death of Gordon on the hands of El-Mahdy men January 26th 1885 AD El-Mahdy issued the first purely Sudanese coin of three values gold pound silver riyal and 0.5 silver riyal .

When Caliph Abdullah El-Hakam succeeded El-Mahdy he found there was a shortage in the circulating currencies so he used pieces of course cloth as currency at the values of 10 piastres and 0.5 piastre but the new cloth currency got dirty after a while so he ordered the hault of circulation and the minting of new currency named makbula or acceptable .

During all the above mentioned events the use of Egyptian currencies in Sudan never ceased . Over and above both Egyptian and British currencies were used as main currencies during the common joint rule ( Egyptian / British ) that started in 1899 AD till the independence of Sudan in 1956AD . The Sudanese government then  collected Egyptian and British coins circulating in Sudan and handed them over to the Egyptian government