After the imposed embargo on Iraq since the end of the first gulf war in 1991, and consequently the irresponsible policies of the ex-government of Saddam Hussain, the value of the Iraqi Dinar had collapsed in the international market synchronously with the collapse of the Iraqi national economy.

Due to this fact the Iraqi ex-government had no choice but to start issuing a locally printed and uncovered Iraqi Currency. Whereas the original one which was printed outside of Iraq specifically in Switzerland and was later given the name “Swiss Currency” referring to the country of printing.

To follow the inflation of the Iraqi economy the locally printed money was increased in the numeral amount but it was equal to a very low amount in US-Dollar or the original Iraqi Dinar.

Saddam Hussain’s government was printing money randomly without covering it in order to support its Rule of Iraq which made the Iraqi Dinar worthless toward the US-Dollar and the other international currencies.

Locally the small Iraqi Dinar notes had disappeared from daily use like the quarter Dinar, the half, one, five and ten not to mention the coins.

Moreover, the locally printed currency was very easily forged due to the fact it was printed without forgery preventing marks like the hidden drawings of the horses or the golden thread that the original currency used to have. The new printed currency was called either “Tabuaa”, which means printed, or “Mozzawar” which means false or forged by the people because of the amount of forged currency interred the Iraqi market during that period. Another name for it was “Saddam's Money” because it was issued by Saddam and it had Saddam's picture instead of pictures of the historical Arab scientists like Ibn Al Haytham or other pictures of Iraqi historical symbols it previously had. It is important here to explain the exchange rate of the original Iraqi Dinar against the US-Dollar and compare it to the exchange rate of the locally printed Dinar of Saddam. One original Iraqi Dinar was worth about US$ 3.25. While US$ 1 was worth about 2000 of Saddam's Dinars and sometimes reached much more than this especially during the wars.

Day of Exchanging the Currency

On the 15^th of October 2003 at 8:00 am was fixed to be the date to change the existing locally printed currency back to the original Iraqi currency. 80 bank branches in Baghdad and 250 other bank branches in the Iraqi Governorates proceeded with the operation of the exchanging the currencies on this date.

The new currency is a similar size to the original currency but only with a higher par value and a different paper quality. For example, the highest quantity of the original currency was the 25 ID note; this quantity is now representing the 25,000 ID note. The original 10 ID is now represented by 10,000 ID, the 5 ID, the 5000 ID and so on.

Instead of Saddam's picture the original drawing of historical Iraqi symbols has been used on the new currencies like the drawing of the School of Al Mustanseria in Baghdad, or the Obelisk of Hammorabee, the Malweeya Minaret of Sammarah, the Hadbaa Minaret of Mosul. The new currencies have the virtue of having forgery preventing marks in it like the security thread, the watery drawings, the material ink (this mark is only fixed on the notes worth 25,000), a hologram is also used on the 10,000 note and the 25,000 note. The dimension of the 50 Dinar note and the 250 Dinar note are the same but has been an increase in the dimension on the other notes.

The Iraqi people were relieved to see the new currencies in their hands for many reasons. First it holds no picture of Saddam Hussain and second it is not a forgery. Many people rushed to the banks on order to exchange the “Saddam Currency” to the new currency. The Iraqi people have suffered a lot from the old currency of Saddam especially after the last war. Some of the greedy dealers of the money used to play tricks with the Iraqi currency in order to make a profit and seizing the opportunity of the shaky position of the Iraqi Dinar during that period. For example, the 1000 Dinar note was not accepted in the local market after the last war for no specific reason, despite an announcement made by the CPA saying that the currency was valid. The reason behind secluding that particular note was the money dealers who started the business to extort people by exchanging this note with multiple notes of 250 Dinars but with a lower value. For example they would exchange 10,000 Dinars to 250 Dinar notes with the value of 7,000 Dinars or 6,000 Dinars.

This is just one example of the suffering the Iraqi people have dealt with for over twelve years.

The Iraqi people are looking to the future with hope to hold a stable currency in their hands. The new Iraqi Dinar: