During the first years of the Republic of Cyprus, the coins in circulation were those of the decimal system introduced by the British colonial administration in 1955.
In 1963, shortly prior to the establishment of the Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC), the first coins of the Republic were issued by the Government through the Accountant General. They followed the decimal system introduced by the British in 1955, according to which the Cyprus pound was divided into 1000 mils. The denominations remained the same, except for the discontinuation of the 3 mils coin, the smallest denomination during the British administration, and the introduction of the 1 mil coin as the smallest denomination. Hence the denominations were 1 mil, 5, 25, 50 and 100 mils.
With its establishment in June 1963, the CBC acquired the responsibility for the issue of currency. During the years that followed the Central Bank proceeded with several coin issues, initially in mils and later in cent.
On 3 October 1983, the CBC, with the approval of the Council of Ministers, introduced the cent decimal system by which the Cyprus pound was divided into 100 cent. With this change, the CBC placed in circulation coins with nominal values of ½, 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 cent. In October 1991, a 50 cent coin was introduced gradually replacing the banknote of the same value. Furthermore, in 1992 the ½ cent coin ceased to be legal tender and was withdrawn.
With the adoption of the euro on 1 January 2008, the Cyprus euro coins have replaced the Cyprus pound coins.