The Iraqi Dinar is the official currency of Iraq. The first Iraqi Dinar was introduced into circulation in 1932, replacing the Indian Rupee that had been in use since World War I. The Iraqi Dinar was given a value of 1 Iraqi Dinar for every 11 Indian Rupees. At the time, the Iraqi Dinar was worth the equivalent of 1 Great British Pound.
In 1959, this was changed to the rate of 1 Iraqi Dinar being equal to $2.80 United States Dollars. During the Gulf War in 1991, the Swiss printing of the Iraqi Dinar was no longer available due to UN sanctions. Due to this, a new, inferior Iraqi Dinar note was issued. The older Iraqi Dinar notes were now called Swiss Dinar notes, and continued to be used in the Kurdish regions of Iraq. Due to sanctions placed on Iraq by the United States and the international community, along with excessive printing of these inferior Iraqi Dinar notes, the Iraqi Dinar quickly devalued to 3000 Iraqi Dinar per $1 United States Dollar. Following the deposition of Saddam Hussein and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the new Iraqi Governing Council continued to print the Saddam Iraqi Dinar notes as a sort of stopgap measure to maintain the Iraqi Dinar supply until a new Iraqi Dinar could be designed and printed. Between October 2003 and the beginning of 2004, the Coalition Provisional Authority issued new Iraqi Dinar notes and Iraqi Dinar coins.
The new Iraqi Dinar notes were produced by De La Rue using modern techniques to help ensure that the new Iraqi Dinar could not be forged. This helped to create a single, unified Iraqi Dinar currency to be used throughout all of Iraq, and to make the Iraqi Dinar easier to use by the average Iraqi. The current exchange rate in Iraq is 1200 Iraqi Dinar per $1 United States Dollar.
There is currently speculation that the Iraqi Dinar will be revalued higher than that number, and due to that there are people that invest in the new Iraqi Dinar. Due to this, there is a market in the US for Iraqi Dinar notes. The Iraqi Dinar notes currently come in the following denominations: 50 Iraqi Dinar notes, 250 Iraqi Dinar notes, 500 Iraqi Dinar notes, 1000 Iraqi Dinar notes, 5000 Iraqi Dinar notes, 10000 Iraqi Dinar notes, and the largest denomination Iraqi Dinar note is the 25,000 Iraqi Dinar note.