Finance Minister's Adviser Sherif Hazem said EGP 1.5 million of one-pound coins that were issued on the occasion of the inauguration of the New Suez Canal has already run out of stock, whether from the Public Treasury or the Central Bank of Egypt.

In statements, Hazem added that another one million Egyptian pounds of the same coin were being issued by the coinage authority and expected to be available by next week.

According to Mohamed Fathi, the Chairman of the Public Treasury House, Egyptian citizens were keen to buy the memorial coin in the various governorates, so that a limit of 50 pounds was allowed for individual purchases.

The new 72-kilometer New Suez Canal project, built in less than a year at a cost of EGP 60 billion, runs part of the way alongside the existing canal connecting the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.

The legendary project was financed by investment certificates sold to Egyptians.