The Jordanian dinar has been the currency of Jordan since 1950. The Jordanian dinar is also widely used alongside the Israeli shekel in the West Bank. The dinar is divided into 10 dirhams, 100 qirsh or 1000 fulus. It is pegged to the US dollar.
History
From 1927 to 1950, the Palestine Currency Board issued the Palestine pound as the official currency in both Mandatory Palestine and the Emirate of Transjordan. After Jordan became an independent kingdom on 25 May 1946, the idea of issuing a national currency arose and led to the passing of the Provisional Act No. 35 of 1949. Under this Act, the Jordan Currency Board was formed, which became the sole authority entitled to issue Jordanian currency in the kingdom. The London-based entity consisted of a president and four members. As of 1 July 1950, the Jordanian dinar became the kingdom’s official currency, and use of the Palestine pound ceased in the kingdom on 30 September 1950. Although issued by the Jordan Currency Board, the notes bear the country's official name, "The Hashemite Kingdom of the Jordan". After the West Bank was annexed by Jordan in 1950, the Jordanian dinar became legal tender there and replaced the Palestine pound. Until 1992, coins were denominated in Arabic using fils, qirsh, dirham and dinar but in English only in fils and dinar. Since 1992, the fils and dirham are no longer used in the Arabic and the English denominations are given in dinar and either qirsh or piastres.
Coins
Coins were introduced in 1949 in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 fils. The first issue of 1 fils were mistakenly minted with the denomination given as "1 fil". 20 fils coins were minted until 1965, with 25 fils introduced in 1968 and dinar coins in 1970. The 1 fils coin was last minted in 1985. In 1996, smaller dinar coins were introduced alongside and 1 dinar coins.
rub'a is Arabic for "piece of four" or "quarter".
nusf is Arabic for "piece of two" or "half".
Banknotes
In 1949, banknotes were issued by the government in denominations of, 1, 5, 10 and 50 dinars. From 1959, the Central Bank of Jordan took over note production. 20 dinar notes were introduced in 1977, followed by 50 dinars in 1999. dinar notes were replaced by coins in 1999.
Since October 23, 1995, the dinar was officially pegged to the IMF's special drawing rights, while in practice, it was fixed at 1 U.S. dollar = 0.709 dinar most of the time, which translates to approximately 1 dinar = 1.41044 dollars. The Central Bank buys U.S. dollars at 0.708 dinar per dollar, and sells U.S. dollars at 0.710 dinar per dollar. A sample exchange rate of Jordanian dinars to US dollars:
