Saddam free Dinar is Iraq's new currency
Iraq’s old bank notes bearing Saddam Hussein’s portrait became obsolete today at the end of a three-month period to exchange them for the new currency.
More than 10,000 tons of now worthless notes bearing the image of the ousted dictator are to be destroyed.
“Rebuilding Iraq’s ruined economy is a key priority for the coalition – a new currency to replace the discredited old one was a necessary early move,” said Paul Bremer, the top US civilian official in Iraq.
The new notes, illustrated with scenes depicting Iraq’s important scientific contributions, its history, landscape and economic life, have been printed in the denominations of 50, 250, 1,000, 5,000, 10,000 and 25,000 dinars.
One US dollar is now worth between 1,200 and 1,300 dinars, compared to about 2,000 before the war.
Central Bank of Iraq Deputy Governor Ahmed Salman Jaburi said the new dinar is secure unlike the easy-to-counterfeit Saddam dinar.
“Its many visible and invisible security features make it very hard to fake,” he said. “A secure currency will provide a firm foundation for Iraq’s future economic growth.”
Bremer said the new currency system was in place less than a year into reconstruction of Iraq, a task that he said took three years to begin in post-World War II Germany.
The first shipment of the new currency – printed by British company De La Rue - arrived in Baghdad last September in 28 jumbo jet loads of 90 tons each. Four smaller aircraft distributed the cash in bulk to regional centres.
It is expected that bank vaults around the country, many completely filled with sacks of old Saddam dinars, will be cleared by the end of January.
