By Sami Zaptia
Tripoli, 27 February 2013:
The new issue of the Libyan one dinar note is out and about – and I like it!
We . . .[restrict]have seen photos of the new notes on the internet, and friends have posted them on Facebook from about a week ago. But it was only today that I went to my bank and noted them with the cashier.
I asked him to exchange me an old fiver for five brand new one-dinar notes. I like them.
They are small. Smaller than the old era ones. It reminds me of the Euro note. I know it is a lilacy pink and many of you don’t like its feminine colour. But I think it is perfectly fine.
The guy in the front of the crowds on the front face does have non-Libyan facial features, I know. He does look positively oriental. I like the transparent flag behind him and the peace sign. But the facial expressions could have been better.
I suppose they reflect the pain suffered in the 17th February Revolution..or over the previous 42 years!
The legal type writing on the front is the same, but they have, surprisingly, omitted the quote from the Koran. It does not mention anything about Libya being ‘the state of Libya’. And of course the long old name consisting of GSPLAJ has been dropped.
We are neither Great, nor Socialist, nor Peoples, nor Arab, nor Jamahiriya. We must wait for the new constitution to decide all that.
The new dinar has the series number one.
On the back, it has “One Dinar” and “Central Bank of Libya” written in English. A sign of the times, I suppose. You know-who must be turning in his grave! English on our currency! What is the world coming to?
It also has a fluttering banner in the tricolor and crescent and star of the new flag, in colour, with white doves flying.
When you hold it up to the light, there is a watermark of Omar al-Mukhtar.
Ultimately, I like its small size. I would have liked it smaller still. The five, ten, twenty and fifty dinars will be larger I assume – but I hope they keep them really small.
Oh, and of course. It does not have a picture of you know who!
What do you think of the new one dinar note? Tell us on our Facebook page. [/restrict]
