What is the currency of Sierra Leone?

The currency of Sierra Leone is the leone, abbreviated to SLL. The leone replaced the British West African pound as the country's currency in 1964. Each leone is divided into 100 cents, and there are coins of up to 500 leones and banknotes of up to 10,000 leones.

Originally, the leone was set to equal half a British West African pound, and its value remained relatively stable from its inception through the 1980s. The Sierra Leone civil war in 1991 set off a period of inflation, however, and the currency became unstable as the country became impoverished. As of September 2014, one U.S. dollar is worth approximately 4,375 leones.