You got the dealer spin on Kuwait… now how about some real facts.
Kuwait was invaded Aug 2nd 1990, they were liberated on Feb 27th 1991,
That’s 7 months. One month later on March 24th, they rolled out a new currency at the new rate.
From wiki: After the liberation, a fourth series was issued on 24 March 1991 with the aims of replacing the previous withdrawn series as quickly as possible and guaranteeing the country's swift economic recovery. This fourth series was legal tender until 16 February 1995. Denominations were ¼, ½, 1, 5, 10 and 20 dinar.
The Kuwait Central Bank only reports back to 1994… but at that time, in 1994, Kuwait had a whopping total of 371 million… not trillion, not even billion… dinars in circulation.
Also from the Central Bank website… Exchange rates.
Average Exchange Rate of Kuwait Dinar Against U.S. Dollar (Fils)
Period Exchange Rate
1986 290.53
1987 278.86
1988 278.94
1989 293.74
1990 291.24
1991 289.19
1992 293.30
1993 301.32
1994 297.62
1995 298.46
1996 299.42
1997 303.36
1998 304.79
1999 304.38
2000 306.79
2001 306.54
2002 303.97
2003 298.046
2004 294.07
2005 292.00
As you can see… that 10 cent exchange rate people like to quote… it wasn’t even a blip on the screen.
In fact… I’ve never seen where the exchange rate officially changed. (Other than dinar dealer claims) The only thing that happened was the people lost confidence in it, panicked, and sold it off at a street value something less than the official value. Unless you were walking around on the streets of Kuwait with money willing to buy peoples dinars, you didn’t make out.
Comparing Iraqs situation… Currency has been out for 3 full years, 10 trillion in circulation, another 10 trillion in banks that has to be supported…. It replaced a currency that Saddam had destroyed by increasing the supply from 20 billion to over 4 trillion.... Comparing that to Kuwaits situation… 7 month conflict, loss of confidence in currency, street selloff, less than 400 million dinars…. Well… there is no comparison.
