Post War
Following the 2003 invasion the Coalition Provisional Authority, installed by the Coalition Forces, determined that Iraq needed a new, unified currency, but establishing a proper exchange rate was relatively difficult. The market exchange rate for Saddam to Swiss dinars remained around 100:1 from 1998 to January 2002, but as the invasion ensued, the Kurdish currency appreciated to 300:1, and subsequently fell to 250:1. After further investigation, the Coalition Provisional Authority determined that it would be best to equate the two currencies by Purchasing Power Parity, which was around 100:1. After researching further, the Coalition decided to adopt an official rate between the market rate and the PPP rate, officially pegging the currency at 150 Saddam dinars per Swiss dinar.
There were two proposed methods to unify the currencies. The first would be to print a new set of Swiss dinar notes and distribute them among the south. However, this would result in 80% of the population needing to exchange the Saddam notes for Swiss dinars. Since printing more Saddam notes was not politically favored, after consulting with a currency expert, the Coalition decided to alter the Swiss plates to the Saddam denominations. This would allow the least amount of currency exchange, but also take Saddam's photo off the currency. The new Swiss currency was created in a different color to differentiate from the old currency.
Reportedly, the exchange was relatively swift and without incident, with the exception of two failed attacks on currency envoys.
Read more about this topic: Iraqi Swiss Dinar
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