Bahraini Dinar Currency

Overview

Bahrain is the lenient and fastest developing economy in comparison to other Arabian Peninsula countries. Bahrain ranks above Qatar, Israel and United Arab Emirates and pays well. Speaking of liberalness, Bahrain is in the 25th place.

Bahrain Dinar is highly valued currency and stands in the third position after the other two valued currencies Bahraini Dinar and Maltese Lira. Bahrain follows a regime of fixed rate and is pegged to US dollar as 1 dinar =2.66 US$. In 2001, peg to US dollar was declared official.

Introduction

Dinar, the unit of currency is used a medium of exchange in the gulf regions including Iraq, Bahrain, Kuwait, Jordan and few non-Arabic countries such as Libya, Algeria, Serbia, Tunisia and the Republic of Macedonia.

The term ‘dinar’ is derived from ‘denarius’, the ancient roman currency. In Macedonia it is known as ‘denar’. Among them, Bahraini dinar holds utmost importance serving Bahrain as national currency. Bahraini dinar is broken into 1000 equal parts having value as 1/100 subunits of each unit.

Composition

1 dinar is circulated as banknotes and below 1 dinar denominations are in the form of coins. Being one of the highest valued currencies, Bahraini dinar is issued till 20 dinars as the highest denomination.

The other paper currency values are BD1, BD5, BD10 and BD 20. The currency paper is in a fixed size, but the notes come in varying color schemes such that it helps in differentiating. The front side is in Arabic language and the back side is in English.

The banknotes have images in the front and back relating to significant places and buildings in Bahrain such as 1 dinar note has a dilmun seal on the face and the picture of the Central Bank of Bahrain headquarter at the back and is red in color. 5 dinar note façade illustrates the Riffa fort south west tower and on the reverse is the Bahrain international airport and is prominently blue in color. 10 dinar note is green colored with ‘dhow’ in the front and customs and immigration aerial view on the reverse, while the 20 dinar note is predominantly orange in color with Sheikh Hamad Bin Isa Al Khalifa on the façade and on the reverse is the Ahmad al Fateh Islamic Centre.

The currency coins are denominations of 5, 10, 25, 50, 100 and 500 fils and are engraved as ‘STATE OF BAHRAIN’ in Arabic and English scripts. The currency coins image on 5 & 10 fils is Palm tree, 25 fils is Dilmun seal, 50 fils has Bahrain dhow, 100 fils has coat of arms of Bahrain and 500 fils has pearl design.