The worn-out currency is a problem that is worsening without solutions.
“No one will take it from me,” Zainab al-Khafaji (an employee) kept repeating as she wandered among the shops near Sayed al-Halib in the Mansour district, before we asked her: “What is it that no one will take from you?” She replied: “Five thousand dinars torn up and glued back together.” She added: “I don’t know who gave it to me when I was shopping, and I tried to buy something with it again, but everyone refused it.”
Al-Khafaji’s situation is like that of many citizens who suffer from the difficulty of making purchases with worn-out currency, unlike what happens, for example, in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq or neighboring countries.
Omar Sami (a vegetable seller) says: “I suffer from this problem every day, whether when taking money from customers or returning the change to them.”
He added that many shoppers get angry when he refuses to take or return worn currency, and the most common phrase is: “What am I going to do with it?” or “It’s not working, exchange it.”
Financial expert Thamer Al-Azzawi says: “The reason for not trading them is the difficulty of exchanging them, as one has to go to government banks and wait and go through other routine procedures.”
He added that “the solution to ending this phenomenon is to reach an agreement with exchange offices to exchange them with citizens, granting them facilities and privileges, or to resort to updating the currency as happened in many European and other countries, where plastic materials were used when printing.”
“The currency.”
Regarding the possibility of electronic payment as an easier alternative, Al-Azzawi said: “It is too early to say that electronic payment can replace cash. Yes, the experiment has been very successful thanks to the current government, but a large part of the citizens are still not confident in it and believe that cash is better and more reliable, even though the opposite is true.”
According to the Central Bank of Iraq, damaged banknotes can be replaced without penalty if the banknote is worn or damaged even if it is not torn and no parts are missing; if the banknote consists of two parts (with different serial numbers) and its area is similar to that of the original banknote and it is held together with adhesive tape; if the banknote is held together with one or more pieces of transparent adhesive tape along its length or width; if the banknote has a cut in more than one corner; if the banknote has a printing defect (in terms of design, size, color, or other security features that are present on genuine banknotes); if it contains stamps or writing that do not affect its external appearance; or if the banknote is missing less than
50% of its area.
However, the Central Bank confirmed the confiscation of damaged banknotes unfit for circulation if the banknote’s exterior has been altered by writing, drawing, printing, stamps, or if it contains adhesive material, or if the banknote has lost 50% or more of its area, or if it consists of two parts on one side. In the event that there is evidence that satisfies the Central Bank that the missing parts of the banknotes have been completely destroyed, they will be partially or fully compensated.
Completely. For his part, Subhi Hussein (a bus driver) says: “I have accumulated a lot of small denominations of 1000, 500 and 250 dinars, most of them damaged or with writings and other things on them.”
He added that many people pay with it under the pretext that they have no other, “which forced me to exchange it, but for a smaller value, because it is difficult to buy with it or exchange it at banks, as most banks refuse to accept it.”
Alsabaah.iq