Showing results for "piastre"

• a variation of piaster.

piastre

British  

/ pɪˈæstə /

noun

1. (formerly) the standard monetary unit of South Vietnam, divided into 100 cents

2. a fractional monetary unit of Egypt, Lebanon, and Syria worth one hundredth of a pound; formerly also used in the Sudan

3. another name for kuruş

4. a rare word for piece of eight

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Etymology

Origin of piastre

C17: from French piastre, from Italian piastra d'argento silver plate; related to Italian piastro _plaster

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

piastre

If Hosni Mubarak has passed his alleged $70bn through British banks, the Egyptians won't see a piastre of it.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 7, 2011

Today the improved flow has so increased the supply of goods coming into Saigon that it has driven down the black-market rate of the piastre from 173 to 145 to the dollar.

From Time Magazine Archive

"Only about two hundred piastres," was the somewhat startling answer, for, at the then current rate of exchange a piastre was worth about $1.50 gold.

From Where the Strange Trails Go Down Sulu, Borneo, Celebes, Bali, Java, Sumatra, Straits Settlements, Malay States, Siam, Cambodia, Annam, Cochin-China by E. Alexander (Edward Alexander) Powell

On account of what may have been smuggled, however, the whole annual importation, he supposes, may have amounted to seventeen millions of piastres, which, at 4s. 6d. the piastre, is equal to L.3,825,000 sterling.

From An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Germain Garnier

Not long afterwards, these were followed by 2½ and 1 piastre notes, which carried pictures of the Dardanelles and Kut on the back, Kut being quite unrecognizable.

From A Kut Prisoner by H. C. W. Bishop