Baghdad - Iraqi banks on Wednesday started exchanging old Iraqi dinars for a new Saddam-less currency that rids the country of another vestige of the fallen dictator as it struggles to rebuild a war-shattered economy.
Iraqis lined up outside banks, protected by US tanks, to receive the new notes - in denominations of 50, 250, 1,000, 5,000, 10,000 and 25,000 dinars - in exchange for the old aqua and light purple bills, which featured a grinning, sartorial Saddam Hussein.
"We're really happy to get rid of Saddam. Since I spend my days counting money, I saw him all day long, and he came back at night in my nightmares," said money changer Haytham al-Okabi.
"This operation will help the dinar, which today goes for 2,010
to the dollar. We believe it will go down to 1,700," said Chamas Sabri, a director of the Warka investment bank, a few hours after financial institutions opened their doors for the swap operation expiring January 15.
Visiting US Commerce Secretary Donald Evans formally introduced the new currency at a ceremony at Baghdad airport, as "a symbol of moving toward a stronger economy."
"The former dictator's face has been removed from the currency,," he said, at the brief ceremony, also attended by the Central Bank governor Sinan Shabibi and US civil administrator Paul Bremer.
"It is a major step toward economic security," he said, in a hangar stocked with crates of new money, as he urged foreign investors, particularly Americans, to travel for business opportunities in Iraq.
Shabibi said "this is a milestone. It shows that the Iraqis are on the road to national independence, which all are Iraqis aspiring for."
"It will prevent counterfeit, unify the currency, ease transactions and probably allow us to monitor money supply," he said.
US General Hugh Tant III, who supervised the project for the coalition, said six trillion dinars had been ordered for Iraq, with four trillion of the new bills being kept in reserve.
Fourty-two percent of the total has so far been shipped to the country.
"An estimated 2.25 billion banknotes, worth four trillion dinars and weighing about 9,000 tonnes, will eventually be destroyed by the central bank," he said.
The US-backed government hopes the operation will help restore the credibility of the Iraqi dinar, which was over-printed and easily counterfeited in Saddam's era.
But not everyone was so happy.
In Saddam's hometown of Tikrit, north of Baghdad, taxi-driver Shihab Ahmed refused to accept the disappearance of the Saddam dinar.
"I will not change all the bills I own because they carry the picture of a leader from Tikrit ... They are a blessing and carried the picture of an Arab Iraqi leader," said Ahmad.
In Baquba, northeast of the capital, one person was injured when Iraqi police fired shots to disperse demonstrators marking the anniversary of a pro-Saddam referendum and protesting the new currency.
The new banknotes, printed by British company De La Rue in several countries, boast the most up-to-date anti-counterfeit features including watermarks, a security thread, raised letters, an optical variable ink and other variations to thwart swindlers.
Simon Gray, a project advisor from the Bank of England, said "the project for the new currency cost 120 million dollars for the printing and 50 million dollars for the implementation."
Bremer announced in July that the new banknotes would replace the locally printed Saddam-model dinar in use after the United Nations slapped sanctions on Baghdad for invading Kuwait in 1990.
The currency in use prior to that, known as the Swiss Dinar even though it was also printed in Britain, had remained in circulation in northern Kurdish regions that slipped out of Saddam's control following the 1991 Gulf War.
All the new notes, except for the 25,000 dinar bill, boast the same design as the old Swiss Dinars but in new vibrant colors.
With Saddam gone from the government and the currency, the new bills pay homage to Iraq's rich cultural heritage, featuring people or places from the times of ancient Mesopotamia. - Sapa-AFP