History of the UAE Dirham (AED)
History of the UAE Dirham
The UAE Dirham is the national currency of the United Arab Emirates, often abbreviated to Dh and Dhs but officially abbreviated to AED. Since 1997 the UAE Dirham has been pegged to the US Dollar at a rate of $1 = 3.6725 AED.
Origin of the UAE Dirham
The UAE Dirham was first introduced on 19th May 1973 where it replaced the Bahraini Dinar, Qatari Riyal and Dubai Riyal. Previously the Qatari Riyal had been the most widely used currency across all the Emirates apart from Abu Dhabi. When the currency was first introduced, coins were in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 25, 50 fils and 1 Dirham. the inscriptions on the coins are in Arabic and the numbers are in Eastern Arabic numerals. Bank notes were introduced in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 50, 100 and 1000 Dirhams. The name Dirham originates from the Greek word Drachmae, which means handful.
History of the UAE Dirham
After first being introduced in 1973, the Dirham pegged itself to the US Dollar in 1997 largely due to the UAE economy being dependent on the oil industry. In 2006 the UAE had an issue with currency fraud as it became widely known that the One Dirham coin was the exact same size as the Philippine One Peso coin, with One Philippine Peso being worth less than One Dirham, the country experienced vending machine fraud. There was also similar fraud issues with 5 Pakistan Rupee coin, 50 Omani Baisa Coin and 1 Moroccan Dirham coin. The central bank later introduced a falcon watermark to combat fraud.
AED banknotes
After the initial release of bank notes in 1973, we have since seen the 1 Dirham and 1000 Dirham notes withdrawn in 1982, with a 500 Dirham introduced in 1983. The 1000 Dirham was reintroduced in 2000. At this current time bank notes are available in denominations of; 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1000 Dirham notes.
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