The Egyptian pound symbol is written as E£ or the ISO code EGP, and there’s no dedicated Unicode character for it. You build it from the capital letter E plus the pound sign £ (U+00A3, decimal 163). Copy whichever form you need below, or use the keyboard method for your device further down.
What the E£ symbol actually is
Unicode gives each distinct character its own code point, and the Egyptian pound never got one. Instead it borrows the pound sign, £, whose official Unicode name is POUND SIGN (U+00A3). So the £ in E£ is literally the same character used for British pounds, Lebanese pounds, and every other “pound” currency.
The E marks it as Egyptian. Put a capital E in front of £ and you have E£; some writers reverse it as £E. In banking, forex, and on price-comparison sites you’ll more often see the three-letter ISO 4217 code, EGP.
An older abbreviation, LE (from the French livre égyptienne), still appears in newspapers. All of them mean the same money.
Egyptian pound symbol codes
Only the £ needs a code. The E is an ordinary letter from your keyboard, so type E first, then produce the pound sign with any value below. The columns separate decimal input (used by Windows Alt codes) from hexadecimal input (used by Word’s Alt+X and Chromebook), because the same character has a different number in each.
| Detail | Value |
|---|---|
| Character used | £ |
| Unicode name | POUND SIGN |
| Code point (hex) | U+00A3 |
| Decimal value | 163 |
| Windows Alt code (decimal) | Alt+0163 |
| Legacy Alt code (decimal) | Alt+156 |
| Mac shortcut | Option + 3 |
| Word method (hex) | type 00A3, then press Alt+X |
| Chromebook / Linux (hex) | Ctrl+Shift+U, then 00a3 |
| HTML named entity | £ |
| HTML numeric (decimal) | £ |
| HTML numeric (hex) | £ |
| CSS escape (hex) | \00A3 |
| Excel / Google Sheets | =UNICHAR(163) |
There’s no LaTeX command specific to this currency; in a math document, type a capital E followed by \pounds or the £ character directly.
How to type the Egyptian pound symbol on any device
Every method here produces the £. Type a capital E first (or after it, if you prefer £E), then add the pound sign.
Windows
Type E, then hold Alt and type 0163 on the numeric keypad. Release Alt and £ appears, giving you E£. This needs a real number pad, not the top-row numbers.
No keypad? Open the emoji and symbol panel with Win + . (Windows key plus full stop), switch to the Ω symbols tab, and pick £ from the currency group, or find it in Character Map under the Latin-1 Supplement block.
The leading zero matters. Alt+0163 draws £ from the modern Windows-1252 set and works in every program.
The older Alt+156 also lands on £ in both the US and Western-European code pages, so it usually works too, but a bare Alt+0163 gives ú on some systems. Use Alt+0163.
Mac
Type E, then press Option + 3 to get £ on a US keyboard layout. On UK and Irish Mac layouts the pound sign sits on Shift + 3 instead, and Option + 3 produces the number sign #. Either way, the Character Viewer works everywhere: press Control + Command + Space, search “pound”, and double-click £.
Word, Outlook, and OneNote
Type E, then type 00A3, then press Alt + X. Word converts the hex code into £. This Alt + X trick works in Word, Outlook, and OneNote, but not in Excel, PowerPoint, or Google Docs. You can also open Insert, Symbol, More Symbols and choose £ from the Currency Symbols subset.
Excel and Google Sheets
Neither app uses Alt + X. In a cell, type =UNICHAR(163) to output £, or ="E"&UNICHAR(163) to build E£ in one formula. You can also just type or paste E£ straight into the cell. Excel additionally has Insert, Symbol; Google Sheets has no symbol menu at all, so paste it or use the formula.
PowerPoint and Google Docs
In PowerPoint, go to Insert, Symbol and pick £, or paste E£ from the top of this page. In Google Docs, use Insert, Special characters, then type “pound” in the search box or draw the shape in the sketch pad, and click £. Add the E yourself in both apps.
iPhone and Android
On both phones the pound sign hides behind the dollar key. Open the number and symbol keyboard (123 on iPhone, ? 123 on Android), press and hold the $ key, and a small menu of currency signs pops up, including £.
Slide to it and release, then type E before it for E£. There’s no separate Egyptian pound key on either keyboard.
Chromebook
ChromeOS has no Alt codes. Type E, then hold Ctrl + Shift + U, type 00a3, and press Enter or Space; a £ appears where the underlined u was.
You can also open the symbol picker with Launcher + Shift + Space (or the Quick Insert key on newer Chromebooks) and search for the pound sign. If a website blocks the shortcut, paste E£ instead.
Notion, Slack, Discord, and Canva
None of these has a currency shortcut. The fastest route is to copy E£ from the top of this page and paste it.
To stop copying it every time, set a text replacement: on Mac, System Settings, Keyboard, Text Replacements, and map “egp” to E£; on iPhone, Settings, General, Keyboard, Text Replacement. The shortcut then expands into E£ in any app, including all four of these.
Where the E£ symbol is used
You’ll see E£ or EGP on Egyptian price tags, restaurant menus, hotel rates, and online-store checkouts (E£ 250). Banks, accounting software, and currency converters lean on the code EGP, especially anywhere amounts in different currencies sit side by side. Spreadsheets tracking Egyptian salaries, invoices, and travel budgets use the same forms.
The Egyptian pound, gineih in Arabic and written ج.م, is the official currency of Egypt and splits into 100 piastres. It has used the £ mark since the 1830s, when many pound and lira currencies shared the sign, all tracing back to the capital L of the Latin libra.
Because E£ reuses the £ sign, it’s easy to mix up with the British pound; only the leading E, or the code EGP, tells them apart. The same letter-plus-symbol pattern shows up elsewhere, such as the Canadian dollar (C$) and the Australian dollar (A$), where a prefix letter marks which country’s currency you mean.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a dedicated Unicode symbol for the Egyptian pound?
No. Unlike the euro (€, U+20AC) or the Indian rupee (₹, U+20B9), the Egyptian pound has no code point of its own. You represent it with the pound sign £ (U+00A3) prefixed by E, or with the ISO code EGP.
What’s the difference between E£, EGP, and LE?
They all mean the Egyptian pound. E£ (or £E) is the everyday symbol, EGP is the ISO 4217 code used in banking and currency conversion, and LE is an older abbreviation from the French livre égyptienne. Use E£ in casual writing and EGP where a standardised code is expected.
Why does the Egyptian pound share the British pound sign £?
The £ isn’t specific to Britain; it’s a general pound and lira mark used by many currencies, including the Lebanese and Sudanese pounds. It comes from a capital L for the Latin libra. The prefix letter or the ISO code is what separates one pound from another.
Will E£ display correctly on other devices and in usernames?
The £ is part of the Latin-1 character set that nearly every font and platform supports, so E£ renders reliably on phones, computers, and the web. It’s just two ordinary characters. Some sites strip £ from usernames or handles, though; if that happens, EGP is a safe fallback.
Why does Option + 3 give # instead of £ on my Mac?
You’re on a UK or Irish keyboard layout. On those layouts the pound sign is Shift + 3, and Option + 3 produces the number sign #.
On the US layout it’s reversed. The Character Viewer (Control + Command + Space) gets you £ regardless of layout.
Related guides
- Our complete list of world currency symbols puts every sign and its codes in one place.
- Browse more currency symbol guides for other money marks.
- Keep the copy-and-paste symbols tool open to grab any character fast.
- The Pakistani rupee (₨) is another regional currency with no keyboard key.
- The Bangladeshi taka (৳) shows a currency that does have its own Unicode code point.
- See how the Bitcoin symbol (₿) compares as a modern currency sign.