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Tripoli, 30 January 2013:
The Central Bank of Libya says that it will start issuing new Libyan banknotes as of tomorrow, Thursday. The notes have face values of one, five, ten and twenty dinars.
There were plans to bring in a LD 50 note but the Bank decided against it in a bid to control the black economy.
According to the Bank’s Facebook page, there will be a special event at the Bank in the morning to launch the new notes attended by the chairman, Saddek Elkaber, the vice chairman, members of the board and CEOs of other banks.
The new notes arrived on Wednesday at Mitiga airbase and will slowly replace the old ones. The Bank has not, however,given a date as yet when the latter will cease to be valid tender. Given the amount in circulation, it is not expected to be until much later this year, at the very earliest..
The old, large-size five and ten dinar notes were supposed to be no longer valid as of 1 November and all of them handed into the Central Bank by 31 December last year. However, this was then extended until 28 February 2013.
New coins are also planned to replace those of the Qaddafi era but are expected to take longer to appear. Late last year, a tender notice was issued to mints abroad for the design and minting of new 50-dirham, 100-dirham, quarter-dinar and half-dinar coins. All will be round.
A small number of one dinar coins is also planned. [/restrict]
