Pictures of newly-minted, Islamic State coins were uploaded by a Syrian activist Monday, seven months after the jihadi group announced plans for new currency.
Abu Ibrahim Raqqawi tweeted three pictures of purported Islamic State coins, accompanied by the message: “#Raqqa the new coins that #ISIS say it will deal with soon #Syria, #IS #ISIL.”
Raqqawi is a founder of Raqqa Is Being Slaughtered Silently, an anti-Islamic State activist group in the northern Syrian city, captured by the terror group in 2013.
#Raqqa the new coins that #ISIS say it will deal with it soon #Syria #IS #ISIL pic.twitter.com/7IdBNQuaOE
— Abu Ibrahim Raqqawi (@raqqa_mcr) June 22, 2015
The Islamic State’s financial office announced it would mint seven coins last fall – two gold dinars, three silver dirhams and three copper feloos. They planned to use denominations of one, five and 10. One dirham would be worth $1 dollar and the 24-carat gold dinar worth $139 dollars.
A new currency would “free its followers from ‘the tyrannical financial system’ and ‘satanic usury’ imposed on Muslims by the rest of the world,” reported The Guardian.
Washington D.C.-based journalist Zaid Benjamin tweeted pictures of the coins on Wednesday, saying, “#Syria First pictures of minted #ISIS coins.” This is the first time they’ve been used, according to Benjamin.
One coin shows a world map, alluding to the group’s desire for world dominance, and a numeral used in the Arabic-speaking world to indicate five. Its estimated worth is $649.
Another coin shows wheat blowing in the wind, referring to a Quranic verse that says: “Those who spend their money in the name of Allah are like a seed that has yielded seven wheat stalks, in each stalk there are a hundred seeds, and Allah multiplies … for whoever He wishes,” according to The Los Angeles Times.
Arabic text on the third coin says, “The Islamic State- A Caliphate based on the doctrine of the prophet.”
Unlike U.S. currency, informal Islamic law says human images can’t be inscribed on coins. The first gold coins were issued by the Ummayyad Islamic caliphate between 696 and 698, and Islamic State coins are set to weigh the same as Ummayyad-era coins, reports Bloomberg.
But according to the BBC, Islamic State currency is meant to imitate coins used during the 17th century Ottoman Empire.
Despite minting currency, the Islamic State still deals in currency exchanged on the global market. Jihadis are earning tens of millions every month by skimming off cash payments to Iraqi government employees living in Mosul.
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