The dinar (Arabic: دينار‎) is the currency of Libya. Its ISO 4217 code is "LYD". The dinar is subdivided into 1000 dirham (درهم). It was introduced in 1971 and replaced the pound at par. It is issued by the Central Bank of Libya, which also supervises the banking system and regulates credit. In 1972, the Libyan Arab Foreign Bank was established to deal with overseas investment.

Coins
Until 1975, old coins denominated in milliemes (equal to the dirham) circulated. In 1975, coins were introduced in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 dirham which bore the coat of arms of the Federation of Arab Republics. These were followed in 1979 by a second series of coins, in the same denominations, which bore a design of a horseman in place of the arms. ¼ and ½ dinar coins were issued in 2004. 1, 5, 10, and 20 dirham coins are rarely used, if ever, as units of exchange. However, they still retain their status as legal tenders.

Banknotes
In 1971, banknotes were introduced in denominations of ¼, ½, 1, 5 and 10 dinar. 20 dinar notes were added in 2002. On 27 August 2008, the Central Bank of Libya announced a new 50 dinar note and that was scheduled to enter circulation on 31 August 2008. The note is already in circulation and features Muammar al-Gaddafi on the obverse. Scans of the new note can be found here.

The subjects depicted on the banknotes have not changed since series 2 except for the portrait of Muammar al-Gaddafi which became the new obverse design of the 1 dinar note in series 4.

Popular nomenclature and denominations

The Libyan dinar is commonly called jni, IPA: [ʒni] (western Libyan Dialect) or jneh [ʒneh] (eastern Libyan dialect). The official name dinar is rarely used outside official circles. The official fractional unit dirham is never used in everyday talk. Garsh - a variant of the word qirsh - is used instead, with 1 garsh = 10 dirhams. One thousand dinars is stylishly called a kilo [kiːlu]. Similarly, five dinars notes and ten dinars notes are sometimes nicknamed, in younger generations male slang, faifa [faːifa] and tsena [tseːna] respectively, which are playful feminizations of the English words five and ten. Libyan currency is nicknamed by Libyans ʿOmar El-Mokhtar after the Libyan freedom fighter who is featured on the obverse of the 10 dinar note.

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