Iraqi dinar
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The Iraqi dinar (ISO 4217: IQD, pronounced: di-'när) is the legal currency of Iraq.
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The Old Iraqi Dinar
Banknotes issued prior to October 2003 show the picture of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Following the 1991 Gulf War, Iraq's currency was printed both locally and in China using poor grade woodpulp paper (rather than cotton or linen) and inferior quality lithography (some notes were reputedly printed on presses designed for printing newspapers). Counterfeited banknotes often appeared to be of better quality than real notes. Despite the collapse in the value of the Iraqi Dinar, the highest denomination printed until 2002 was 250 Dinars. In 2002 the Central Bank of Iraq issued a 10,000 Dinar banknote to be used for "larger, and inter-bank transactions".
During the 1990s, the self governing Kurdish minority in northern Iraq had issued their own version of the Iraqi dinar, commonly called the "Swiss Dinar".
Following the deposition of Saddam Hussein in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Iraqi Governing Council and the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance began printing more 250-dinar notes. Saddam Hussein appeared on all post-war Iraqi dinar banknotes, aside from the reprinted "Horse herd" 25 Dinar note.
The New Iraqi Dinar
Replacing the notes
Between October 15, 2003 and January 15, 2004, the American-led Coalition Provisional Authority issued the new Iraqi dinar to "create a single unified currency that is used throughout all of Iraq and will also make money more convenient to use in people’s everyday lives".
New denominations
The new banknotes comprised of denominations of 50, 250, 1000, 5000, 10000, and 25000 Dinars. The notes were similar in design to notes issued by the Iraqi Central Bank in the mid 1980s but did not contain Saddam Hussein's picture. A 500 Dinar note was issued a year later, in October 2004. In December 2004, the Central Bank of Iraq announced that it would issue new coins effective January 2, 2005, in denominations of 25, 50, and 100 dinars.
The new Iraqi dinar exchange rate
The value of the Iraqi Dinar has appreciated from lows of approximately 3,000 Dinars per 1 US Dollar to 1,465 Dinar per 1 USD as of June 2005.
Iraqi Dinar Speculation
Immidiately after the issue of the new Iraqi notes, the dinar attracted many foreign speculators who rushed to purchase large quantities of the Iraqi Dinar. Many self-labelled Iraqi Dinar traders offered the dinar for sale. Foreign banks were slow to start trading the currency globally, forcing speculators to hoard physical dinar notes.
See Also
External Link