The syli was the currency of Guinea

Guinea

Guinea , officially the Republic of Guinea , is a country in West Africa. Formerly known as French Guinea , it is today sometimes called Guinea-Conakry to distinguish it from its neighbour Guinea-Bissau. Guinea is divided into eight administrative regions and subdivided into thirty-three prefectures...

 between 1971 and 1985. It was subdivided into 100 cauris. The word syli means "elephant", while cauri

Cowry

Cowry, also sometimes spelled cowrie, plural cowries, is the common name for a group of small to large sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries...

refers to the shells

Cypraea moneta

Monetaria moneta, commonly known as the money cowry, is a species of small sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Cypraeidae, the cowries....

 formerly used as currency. The syli replaced the Guinean franc

Guinean franc

-First Guinean franc:The first Guinean franc was introduced in 1959 to replace the CFA franc. There were 1, 5, 10 and 25 francs coins with banknotes in 50, 100, 500, 1000, 5000 and 10,000 francs denominations. A second series of banknotes was issued in 1960, without the 10,000 francs...

 at a rate of 1 syli = 10 francs.

Coins of 50 cauris, 1, 2 and 5 sylis were made of aluminium

Aluminium

Aluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....

. Banknotes of the 1971 series were issued in denominations of 10, 25, 50 and 100 sylis. A second series of banknotes was issued in 1980, this time in different colours and with four additional denominations – 1, 2, 5 and 500 sylis notes.

The syli was replaced by the Guinean franc

Guinean franc

-First Guinean franc:The first Guinean franc was introduced in 1959 to replace the CFA franc. There were 1, 5, 10 and 25 francs coins with banknotes in 50, 100, 500, 1000, 5000 and 10,000 francs denominations. A second series of banknotes was issued in 1960, without the 10,000 francs...

 in 1985 at par.

Banknotes

1971 notes
Image	Value	Main Colour	Obverse	Reverse	Date of issue
	10 syilis	Brown	Patrice Lumumba Patrice Lumumba Patrice Émery Lumumba was a Congolese independence leader and the first legally elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo after he helped win its independence from Belgium in June 1960. Only ten weeks later, Lumumba's government was deposed in a coup during the Congo Crisis...	People with bananas	1971
	25 syilis	Dark brown	Man smoking a pipe	Man and cows
	50 syilis	Green	Bearded man at left	Landscape with large dame and reservoir
	100 syilis	Violet	Ahmed Sékou Touré Ahmed Sékou Touré Ahmed Sékou Touré was an African political leader and President of Guinea from 1958 to his death in 1984...	Steam shovel and two dump trucks
1980 notes
	1 syili	Olive green	Matori Bangoura	text "un syli"	1980
	2 syilis	Orange	King Mohammed V of Morocco Mohammed V of Morocco Mohammed V was Sultan of Morocco from 1927–53, exiled from 1953–55, where he was again recognized as Sultan upon his return, and King from 1957 to 1961. His full name was Sidi Mohammed ben Yusef, or Son of Yusef, upon whose death he succeeded to the throne...	text "deux sylis"
	5 syilis	Blue	Kwame Nkrumah Kwame Nkrumah Kwame Nkrumah was the leader of Ghana and its predecessor state, the Gold Coast, from 1952 to 1966. Overseeing the nation's independence from British colonial rule in 1957, Nkrumah was the first President of Ghana and the first Prime Minister of Ghana...	People with bananas
	10 syilis	Red	Patrice Lumumba Patrice Lumumba Patrice Émery Lumumba was a Congolese independence leader and the first legally elected Prime Minister of the Republic of the Congo after he helped win its independence from Belgium in June 1960. Only ten weeks later, Lumumba's government was deposed in a coup during the Congo Crisis...	People with bananas
	25 syilis	Dark gren	Man smoking a pipe	Man and cows
	50 syilis	Dark brown	Bearded man	Landscape with large dame and reservoir
	100 syilis	Blue	Ahmed Sékou Touré Ahmed Sékou Touré Ahmed Sékou Touré was an African political leader and President of Guinea from 1958 to his death in 1984...	Steam shovel and two dump trucks
	500 syilis	Dark brown	Josip Broz Tito Josip Broz Tito Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...	Modern building