Sierra Leone - Sierra Leonean Leone - P-5d - Foreign Paper Money

1 Leone, P-5d. Bank of Sierra Leone. The leone is the currency of Sierra Leone. It is subdivided into 100 cents. As of 1 July 2022, the ISO 4217 code is SLE due to a redenomination of the old leone (SLL) at a rate of SLL 1000 to SLE 1. The leone is abbreviated as Le placed before the amount.

The leone was introduced on 4 August 1964. It replaced the British West African pound at a rate of 1 pound = 2 leones (i.e., 1 leone = 10 shillings). When it was introduced, one leone was worth precisely half a pound sterling or US$1.40. The leone was worth more than the U.S. dollar until the 1980s, when the currency started to devalue rapidly. Years of high inflation have caused the value of leone to plummet, and a U.S. dollar became worth thousands of leones starting in the 2000s.

In August 2021, it was announced that a new leone (SLE), worth 1000 SLL, would be introduced. The new leone was eventually introduced in July 2022. Old leone denominations remained legal tender and continued to circulate. However, inflation continues to erode the purchasing power of the leone, which has been accelerating since 2022. As of 5 April 2023, one U.S. dollar was valued at 21 SLE or 21,000 SLL, making the 20 SLE note (the highest circulating denomination) worth less than US$1. Read more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sierra_Leonean_leone