Last updated: September 2026

What currency does Ghana use?

Ghana uses the Ghana cedi, written GH¢, issued by the Bank of Ghana. The current family runs GH¢1, GH¢5, GH¢10, GH¢20, GH¢50, GH¢100 and GH¢200. The first five arrived with the redenomination of 1 July 2007, a GH¢2 note followed in 2010, and the two highest values were added on 29 November 2019.

Before the cedi there was a pound, and before that pound there was a colonial board. The Bank of Ghana's own account is precise about the handover: prior to independence the issue of currency was the responsibility of the West African Currency Board, whose West African pound, shillings and pence circulated in Ghana until July 1958 (Bank of Ghana, Evolution of Currency in Ghana, archived).

That makes Ghana a country with four distinct note families in under fifty years, plus a redenomination. Each change left behind a body of paper that is still easy to find and cheap to buy, which is why Ghana is one of the friendliest African countries for a new collector. Our list of currency redenominations puts the 2007 change alongside its peers.

What was the Ghana pound?

The Ghana pound was the country's first national currency. After independence the new monetary authority, the Bank of Ghana, issued its own currency in the form of Ghana pounds, shillings and pence on 14 July 1958, and with that issue formally took over the issue of currency notes and coins from the West African Currency Board.

The Bank of Ghana's own catalogue of its notes shows how quickly the designs moved. The earliest listed note, showing the Bank of Ghana building, is dated 1 July 1958. Two more, one with cocoa pods and one with cargo ships and logs, are dated 1 July 1962, and another is dated 1 July 1963 (Bank of Ghana, Bank Notes of Ghana, archived). These are pre-decimal notes, and they are the scarcest material in a Ghanaian collection.

The design language of that first family is worth noticing. It is deliberately economic rather than political: a bank building, cocoa pods, ships and timber. Ghana was selling its independence on production, not portraits, and the portraits came later. Our Bank of England note history covers the sterling system Ghana was leaving, and our history of De La Rue covers the British security printers that supplied much of West Africa in that era.

Why is Ghana's currency called the cedi?

The name comes from a shell. The Bank of Ghana says the word cedi was derived from sedie, meaning cowrie, the shell money that gained popularity and wider circulation in the later part of the nineteenth century. Its fraction, the pesewa, took its name from the smallest denomination of the gold-dust currency regime, and was chosen to replace the colonial penny.

Cedi notes and pesewa coins were introduced on 19 July 1965, when Ghana decided to leave the British colonial monetary system and adopt the decimal system. The 1965 cedi bore the portrait of the then President, Dr Kwame Nkrumah. The Bank of Ghana records that the currency issued in 1965 comprised ¢1, ¢5, ¢10, ¢50, ¢100 and ¢1,000 notes together with 5, 10 and 20 pesewa coins (Bank of Ghana, Evolution of Currency in Ghana).

Then politics rewrote the money. After the overthrow of the CPP government, the military government decided to replace the existing currency, which bore Nkrumah's portrait, with one that did not. The New Cedi, written N¢, was introduced on 17 February 1967 to replace the 1965 cedi at a rate the Bank of Ghana states as ¢1.20 equals N¢1.00, and the new cedi notes remained in circulation until March 1973, when the unit became simply the cedi again.

Why did Ghana keep changing its banknotes?

Because inflation kept outrunning the denominations, and because each change of government wanted its own currency. Between 1965 and the 2000s the Bank of Ghana added denomination after denomination, and in 1979 the government carried out a full demonetisation of the existing notes.

The 1979 reform is the sharpest example. On 9 March 1979 the government announced the introduction of new cedi notes to replace the old ones, at a discount, and the old cedis were therefore demonetised. The new denominations issued were ¢1, ¢2, ¢5, ¢10, ¢20 and ¢50 (Bank of Ghana, Evolution of Currency in Ghana).

The ladder then climbed steadily. The Bank of Ghana records that between 1972 and 1994 a further seven note denominations and eight coin denominations were introduced, and that since 2002 two more notes, of ¢10,000 and ¢20,000, were added to those in circulation. By then a typical cash transaction needed a thick handful of paper, which is exactly the problem the redenomination was designed to solve.

What was the 2007 redenomination of the cedi?

On 1 July 2007 Ghana replaced the cedi with the Ghana cedi. The Bank of Ghana set the terms itself: ten thousand cedis to one new Ghana cedi, which it also expressed as one hundred Ghana pesewas. New notes and coins were issued to replace the existing ones over a period of at least six months.

The bank's own stated reason was practical rather than symbolic. It described the old note regime as placing a significant deadweight burden on the economy through high transaction costs at cashiers, general inconvenience, the risk of carrying loads of currency, growing difficulty in maintaining bookkeeping and statistical records and keeping them compatible with data processing software, and strain on the payments system, particularly on ATMs (Bank of Ghana, Redenomination of the Cedi, archived). The ratio itself is set out in the bank's companion notice (Bank of Ghana, Redenomination of the Cedi FAQs, archived).

The new family arrived on the day of the change. The Bank of Ghana's catalogue dates five of the modern designs to 1 July 2007, and a sixth, a GH¢2 note carrying Kwame Nkrumah and Parliament House, to 14 May 2010 (Bank of Ghana, Bank Notes of Ghana). Two further denominations followed nine years later.

One commemorative note sits inside that family. The Bank of Ghana was reported to be introducing a new GH¢5 note on 4 March 2017 to mark the bank's 60th anniversary, and in a press release of 26 January 2017 it confirmed that note while categorically denying social media rumours of new 30, 100 and 200 cedi notes (BanknoteNews). Two of those three rumoured denominations arrived anyway, two years later.

Ghana banknote series at a glance

The table sets the families side by side, using the Bank of Ghana's own dates and its own descriptions of the note designs.

Series data from the Bank of Ghana's Evolution of Currency in Ghana and Bank Notes of Ghana pages, with design details for the modern family confirmed by Coin World.

Who are the Big Six on Ghana's banknotes?

The Big Six are the six nationalist leaders of Ghana's independence generation, and their portrait group appears on the front of every modern Ghana cedi note. They are Kwame Nkrumah, Emmanuel Odarkwei Obetsebi Lamptey, William Ofori Atta, Edward Akufo-Addo, Ebenezer Ako Adjei and Joseph Boakye Danquah. The catalog describes the front simply as Kwame Nkrumah and five other leaders at right.

Putting six faces on one note is unusual, and it solves a Ghanaian problem. The 1965 notes carried one man and were withdrawn within two years of a change of government; the 1967 notes carried nobody at all. The portrait group spreads the honour across a whole founding generation instead. Coin World lists the six with their dates: Nkrumah 1909 to 1972, Obetsebi Lamptey 1902 to 1963, Ofori Atta 1910 to 1988, Akufo-Addo 1906 to 1979, Ako Adjei 1916 to 2002 and Danquah 1895 to 1965.

The backs identify the denominations. The GH¢1 shows the University of Ghana statue, the GH¢5 the Bank of Ghana, the GH¢10 the Supreme Court and the GH¢20 Osu Castle, also known as Fort Christiansborg (Coin World). The Bank of Ghana's own catalogue describes its two 2019 notes as showing the Chamber of Parliament and the Seat of Government building. For more on how countries choose the faces, see portraits on banknotes, and compare the approach taken in South Africa and Ethiopia.

What are old Ghana cedi notes worth?

Ghanaian paper is affordable, which is part of its appeal. Almost everything from the 1970s to the 2000s can be bought in high grade for modest money, and the interest lies in dates and signatures. The catalog values below are in US dollars from the PMG World Paper Money Price Guide, read in September 2026.

Two things jump out of that table. The first is that dates matter more than denominations: the same ¢20,000 design is cataloged at three different levels depending on which of the three dates it carries. The second is that specimens run far ahead of issued notes, the P-24 specimen being listed at five times the uncirculated issued note. Catalog values are a reference point rather than a quote, and what determines banknote value explains the rest. Catalog numbers are Pick numbers, covered in our guide to Pick numbers.

How do you start collecting Ghana banknotes?

Buy the modern family first. Seven Ghana cedi notes, all with the same Big Six portrait and different Accra landmarks on the back, make a complete set that is easy to assemble in uncirculated condition and shows the country's design programme in one row.

Two deeper routes open from there. The first is the inflation story: a run of cedi notes from the 1970s through to the ¢20,000 of 2002 shows the denominations climbing decade by decade until the redenomination reset them, and every note in that run is inexpensive. The second is the political story: a 1965 Nkrumah note next to a 1967 new cedi note is the clearest object lesson in African numismatics about what a change of government does to a currency.

Watch the dates and signatures. The Bank of Ghana has kept the same designs running for years while changing dates and signatures, and the trade press records a GH¢5 note with a new signature and a date of 1 August 2025 (BanknoteNews). Learn the grading ladder before you spend: grades run from Uncirculated down through AU, XF, VF, F, VG and G, and the certified market uses a 1 to 70 scale, explained in our banknote grading guide, with graded versus raw banknotes covering when certification earns its cost. The banknote glossary defines specimens and prefixes, and how to store banknotes matters in a tropical climate.

Where can you buy Ghana banknotes?

Buy from an established dealer that authenticates every note, documents where it came from, and stands behind it in writing. Prices far below every other seller, vague sourcing and no returns are the signals to walk away from.

Planet Banknote sources notes direct from mints, central banks and authorized distributors rather than reselling anonymous lots. Browse the current selection through the banknotes by country directory, where availability changes with what has been sourced, and see third-party certified pieces in the graded banknotes selection. Our guide to buying world banknotes safely and how to collect world banknotes cover the rest.

Planet Banknote is a family-owned dealership in Sarasota, Florida, founded in 2021. Every note is sourced direct from mints, central banks, and authorized distributors, inspected through our Planet Banknote Verified process, and ships with a free Certificate of Authenticity. US orders ship free via USPS Priority, and every order includes a free bonus gift.