Dug this out of my old articles...thought ya'll wanted a reminder what the rate CAN return back to at the time it was exchanged in October 2003:
The new Iraqi Dinar
Healing Iraq | 10/15/2003 | Zeyad
Healing Iraq
Today was the first day 250 banks all over Iraq commenced the exchange of the old Iraqi currency(ies) with new unified notes recently printed abroad, in Britain I guess. It was surprisingly a peaceful and quiet day, contrary to all expectations and rumours circulating in Baghdad that banks would be targetted the first day they started the exchange process. Many Rafidain bank divisions across Baghdad received warnings and threat letters. My aunt works as a bank manager, and she found a letter on her desk a few days ago signed by a group called The Army Of Mohammed 'Jaish Mohammed' asking her how she would like to die. This group had appeared many times mainly on Al Arabiyah station threatening Americans, coalition forces, governing council members, and any Iraqis 'collaborating with occupying forces'. Of course collaborators range widely (in their definition) from translators working with American patrols or international organizations and foreign companies, local UN workers, to normal civil servants and employees working at governmental offices. Needless to say, my aunt was freaked out and she visited us that day panicking and it was until she calmed down a bit that we got the story out of her, of course everyone wanted her to quit and stay home but she wouldn't hear of it. I still think it was a practical joke by some prankster at her office.
Anyway, banks witnessed extreme security measures by both Iraqi police and American forces to thwart any attempted attacks. Barbed wire, large concrete barriers had been placed around the larger divisions, and checkpoints in the streets leading to the banks, this caused some traffic jams, especially in the busiest areas of the city, but it was neccessary. 80 bank divisions in Baghdad were involved in the exchange, which started at 8 in the morning and closed at 4 in the afternoon. The exchange process will continue as such for three months till the 15th of January which will be enough for the new Dinar to circulate and to get rid of the old ones.
People were happy, I talked to some people in my neighbourhood who had been fortunate to be the first to see the new notes. They showed them to me, the notes were beautiful and obviously of a very high quality, shiny and crispy. They come in 50, 100, 250, 1000, 5000, 10,000, and 25,000 Dinar bills. The 25,000 D note sounds extreme and unneccessary, and might create a few problems when dealing with such large a note. But most importantly they looked impossible to forge, which was the reason they were made in the first place.
People have been having a lot of trouble with their money the last 6 months. First the problem of the 10,000 dinar bills, billions worth of these notes were looted from banks and banks' printing storages, and a large majority of these were without printed serial numbers. But the looters cleverly solved this little annoyance, they simply stole the whole bank press and machinery along with the ink used and other details, and started to print their own numbers and notes. So the greedy idiots at Al Kifah street (which is the Wall street of Baghdad) decided not to deal with the 10,000 bills at all and bought them at prices ranging from 6500 to 8000 per note. Of course merchants followed and that was that. No matter how genuine your notes were, nobody would take them at their real value. Add to this problem that most Iraqi merchants, businessmen, and families had exchanged their smaller notes with 10k notes before the war, and you get the picture. And in the first month the CPA decided to give salaries in 10k bills which didn't help at all. Central Bank and CPA officials stated all the time that 10k bills were valid and that there was no truth in the rumours that indicated otherwise, but people wouldn't listen.
Another problem which surfaced in the last 2 months was the 250 dinar bill. We have two kinds of these, the old one which was used during the 90's and the new one which started circulating last year. Both have Saddam on them, but the second is smaller. Anyway, AL Kifah st. financial 'experts' were out of ideas how to make more money, so they decided to spread a rumour that most of the small 250 D bill were forged, and so they wouldn't deal with them anymore, except of course they would gladly buy them at lower prices. I couldn't imagine people would be so stupid to believe this, but sadly they bought it. In present day Iraq, rumours work better than official statements, people for some reason always believe the rumour and think that any official statement is just a cover up or some sort of conspiracy to fool them. Iraqis never trust their governments, and they don't believe what they say due to obvious reasons from their late history. The American adminstration in Iraq should know that by heart and they should act accordingly to gain the peoples trust.
Back to the Dinar. In the last 30 years we have experienced so many changes in currency that I would need a whole book just to mention them and state the differences between each. The ones that are currently in circulation fall in two groups:
First, the 'swisry' Dinar which means Swiss (where they were usually printed) which were in use during the 80's up to a couple of years following the first Gulf war. It was a very stable currency and it's exchange rate with the dollar was 0.33 Dinars. It remained in use in the autonomous Kurdish territories till this day. it comes in 0.25, 0.5, 1, 5, 10, and 25 Dinar notes. Today one swisry Dinar equals 150 new Dinars, so one Dollar would equal 7-8 Swiss Dinars. This version was used as the template of the new Iraqi Dinar which would look the same except colored differently.
Second, the tabu' Dinar (tabu' means printed) which falls into 3 subgroups:
A) locally printed versions of the swisry Dinar with some minor changes. They are no longer in use today.
B) locally printed new Dinars with Saddam's picture on all of them. They come in 25, 50, 100, and 250 Dinar notes. This was at the time the value of the Dinar started to fall against the Dollar. These are the ones mainly used today in Iraq.
C) locally printed smaller Dinars, also with Saddam's picture on them. They come in 25, 50, 100, 250, and the infamous 10,000 Dinar notes. These were at first favoured because of the 10k bill which would allow people to store their money in smaller amounts of notes, whereas they usually had to deal with the problem of carrying large sacks of money in 250 D notes which would bring unwanted attention. But this last version of the Dinar faced problems in post Saddam Iraq, so they are less used today.
So all this mess would obviously highlight the importance of a new currency in Iraq today. If it were only to get rid of Saddam's picture from our money which seems to mock us everyday smiling back at us. it was enough for that reason alone. Some people marked this day , 15/10, as the 'second fall of Saddam', I agree with that. 'His' face will now be forever erased from our memory. It's a great day for Iraqis.
This was the Forex Chart currency converter at the time of this article when they started the exchange of old dinar to NEW dinar:
Friday, October 24, 2003
1 Iraqi Dinar = 3.35244 US Dollar
1 US Dollar (USD) = 0.29829 Iraqi Dinar (IQD)
Learn about the new Iraqi Dinar
Median price = 3.08890 / 3.35244 (bid/ask)
Minimum price = 3.08814 / 3.35244
Maximum price = 3.08890 / 3.35435
The new Iraqi Dinar
Healing Iraq | 10/15/2003 | Zeyad
Healing Iraq
Today was the first day 250 banks all over Iraq commenced the exchange of the old Iraqi currency(ies) with new unified notes recently printed abroad, in Britain I guess. It was surprisingly a peaceful and quiet day, contrary to all expectations and rumours circulating in Baghdad that banks would be targetted the first day they started the exchange process. Many Rafidain bank divisions across Baghdad received warnings and threat letters. My aunt works as a bank manager, and she found a letter on her desk a few days ago signed by a group called The Army Of Mohammed 'Jaish Mohammed' asking her how she would like to die. This group had appeared many times mainly on Al Arabiyah station threatening Americans, coalition forces, governing council members, and any Iraqis 'collaborating with occupying forces'. Of course collaborators range widely (in their definition) from translators working with American patrols or international organizations and foreign companies, local UN workers, to normal civil servants and employees working at governmental offices. Needless to say, my aunt was freaked out and she visited us that day panicking and it was until she calmed down a bit that we got the story out of her, of course everyone wanted her to quit and stay home but she wouldn't hear of it. I still think it was a practical joke by some prankster at her office.
Anyway, banks witnessed extreme security measures by both Iraqi police and American forces to thwart any attempted attacks. Barbed wire, large concrete barriers had been placed around the larger divisions, and checkpoints in the streets leading to the banks, this caused some traffic jams, especially in the busiest areas of the city, but it was neccessary. 80 bank divisions in Baghdad were involved in the exchange, which started at 8 in the morning and closed at 4 in the afternoon. The exchange process will continue as such for three months till the 15th of January which will be enough for the new Dinar to circulate and to get rid of the old ones.
People were happy, I talked to some people in my neighbourhood who had been fortunate to be the first to see the new notes. They showed them to me, the notes were beautiful and obviously of a very high quality, shiny and crispy. They come in 50, 100, 250, 1000, 5000, 10,000, and 25,000 Dinar bills. The 25,000 D note sounds extreme and unneccessary, and might create a few problems when dealing with such large a note. But most importantly they looked impossible to forge, which was the reason they were made in the first place.
People have been having a lot of trouble with their money the last 6 months. First the problem of the 10,000 dinar bills, billions worth of these notes were looted from banks and banks' printing storages, and a large majority of these were without printed serial numbers. But the looters cleverly solved this little annoyance, they simply stole the whole bank press and machinery along with the ink used and other details, and started to print their own numbers and notes. So the greedy idiots at Al Kifah street (which is the Wall street of Baghdad) decided not to deal with the 10,000 bills at all and bought them at prices ranging from 6500 to 8000 per note. Of course merchants followed and that was that. No matter how genuine your notes were, nobody would take them at their real value. Add to this problem that most Iraqi merchants, businessmen, and families had exchanged their smaller notes with 10k notes before the war, and you get the picture. And in the first month the CPA decided to give salaries in 10k bills which didn't help at all. Central Bank and CPA officials stated all the time that 10k bills were valid and that there was no truth in the rumours that indicated otherwise, but people wouldn't listen.
Another problem which surfaced in the last 2 months was the 250 dinar bill. We have two kinds of these, the old one which was used during the 90's and the new one which started circulating last year. Both have Saddam on them, but the second is smaller. Anyway, AL Kifah st. financial 'experts' were out of ideas how to make more money, so they decided to spread a rumour that most of the small 250 D bill were forged, and so they wouldn't deal with them anymore, except of course they would gladly buy them at lower prices. I couldn't imagine people would be so stupid to believe this, but sadly they bought it. In present day Iraq, rumours work better than official statements, people for some reason always believe the rumour and think that any official statement is just a cover up or some sort of conspiracy to fool them. Iraqis never trust their governments, and they don't believe what they say due to obvious reasons from their late history. The American adminstration in Iraq should know that by heart and they should act accordingly to gain the peoples trust.
Back to the Dinar. In the last 30 years we have experienced so many changes in currency that I would need a whole book just to mention them and state the differences between each. The ones that are currently in circulation fall in two groups:
First, the 'swisry' Dinar which means Swiss (where they were usually printed) which were in use during the 80's up to a couple of years following the first Gulf war. It was a very stable currency and it's exchange rate with the dollar was 0.33 Dinars. It remained in use in the autonomous Kurdish territories till this day. it comes in 0.25, 0.5, 1, 5, 10, and 25 Dinar notes. Today one swisry Dinar equals 150 new Dinars, so one Dollar would equal 7-8 Swiss Dinars. This version was used as the template of the new Iraqi Dinar which would look the same except colored differently.
Second, the tabu' Dinar (tabu' means printed) which falls into 3 subgroups:
A) locally printed versions of the swisry Dinar with some minor changes. They are no longer in use today.
B) locally printed new Dinars with Saddam's picture on all of them. They come in 25, 50, 100, and 250 Dinar notes. This was at the time the value of the Dinar started to fall against the Dollar. These are the ones mainly used today in Iraq.
C) locally printed smaller Dinars, also with Saddam's picture on them. They come in 25, 50, 100, 250, and the infamous 10,000 Dinar notes. These were at first favoured because of the 10k bill which would allow people to store their money in smaller amounts of notes, whereas they usually had to deal with the problem of carrying large sacks of money in 250 D notes which would bring unwanted attention. But this last version of the Dinar faced problems in post Saddam Iraq, so they are less used today.
So all this mess would obviously highlight the importance of a new currency in Iraq today. If it were only to get rid of Saddam's picture from our money which seems to mock us everyday smiling back at us. it was enough for that reason alone. Some people marked this day , 15/10, as the 'second fall of Saddam', I agree with that. 'His' face will now be forever erased from our memory. It's a great day for Iraqis.
This was the Forex Chart currency converter at the time of this article when they started the exchange of old dinar to NEW dinar:
Friday, October 24, 2003
1 Iraqi Dinar = 3.35244 US Dollar
1 US Dollar (USD) = 0.29829 Iraqi Dinar (IQD)
Learn about the new Iraqi Dinar
Median price = 3.08890 / 3.35244 (bid/ask)
Minimum price = 3.08814 / 3.35244
Maximum price = 3.08890 / 3.35435