Afghani (currency)
Categories: Economy of Afghanistan | Asian currencies
- This article refers to the currency. For other uses, see Afghani.
The Afghani is currency used in Afghanistan. Historically, it was divided into 100 pouls. Prior to 2003, the afghani was valued at 43,000 AFA per USD. Prior to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, warlords, political parties, foreign powers and forgers each made their own afghanis, with no regard to standardization or honoring serial numbers. For example, after the Northern Alliance lost power in 1996, it had banknotes produced in Russia which were sold on the markets of Kabul at half their value. Current banknotes are issued in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1,000 afghanis.
However, on January 2, 2003, a three-month transition period ended swapping old afghani banknotes for new currency. The new afghani received a new ISO 4217 code of AFN (replacing the earlier AFA) and had three zeros knocked off, with the new afghani valued at 43 AFN per USD.
On October 1, Afghan Central Bank governor Anwar Ul-Haq Ahadi announced that Afghans should use their own afghani currency in daily transactions rather than U.S. dollars or Pakistani rupees. This was in preparation for October 8 when all prices in the Afghan marketplace were to be specified in afghanis.
In April, 2000, the old afghani traded at 6,400 AFA per USD.
de:Afghani eo:Afgana afganio fr:Afghani nl:Afghani ja:アフガニ nb:Afghansk afghani nn:Afghani sv:Afghani