The Islamic State (IS) extremist leaders decided to introduce their own currency – dinar – and mint coinage from pure gold and silver like in early Islam.
New coins will be put into circulation in the next few weeks in territories in Syria and Iraq under IS control.
As a model the extremists chose round coins put in circulation in 630 at Uthman’s Caliphate times. There was a stamp with an Islamic inscription on the one side of the coin and a date and the ruler’s name on the other. A golden coin was called Islamic dinar and weighed about 4.3 grams. A silver one – an Islamic dirham – was about 3 g.
The ambitious plans to create new currency are based, as mass media report, upon the revenues from sales of oil extracted from oilfields captured by the IS units, and also upon income from other criminal acts like racketeering, bank robberies and ransoms paid in cases of kidnapping.
The annual revenue from illegal oil sales only comprises about $ 2 million, according to experts. The oil prices in IS range from $25 to $50 per barrel and the extremists sell almost 30,000 barrels a day. A region between Syria and Iraq under IS control has become a black market for oil sales.
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