Notes on the Iraqi Dinar

The new Iraqi Dinar was released on October 15, 2003. It replaced all "old" Dinar and "Swiss" Dinar banknotes, which as of January 15th 2004 were no longer legal tender.

The conversion rates for the new Iraqi dinars were as follows:

• one "old" Dinar was exchanged for one new Iraqi Dinar


• one unit of the "Swiss" Dinar (used throughout Iraq until the early 1990's, and still used in some northern areas of Iraq) was exchanged for 150 new Iraqi Dinars.

The new Iraqi Dinar banknotes look similar to the former national ("Swiss") Dinar notes, but have more security features to guard against counterfeiting, are more durable so will suffer less "wear and tear," and have many more denominations. The new currency is convertible into non-Iraqi currencies, including the US dollar, at the prevailing market rate.

To see pictures of the banknotes of Iraq, go to fxGallery.