At the same time the US is getting a new $20 bill, Iraqis are getting a completely new currency. 
In the photo to the right, a worker for the US military in Iraq throws Iraqi 10,000 dinar notes into furnace to make way for the new US-approved currency. Click on the pic to supersize it and then see the complete slideshow, which features many pictures of flaming paper money. “In Baghdad, Central Bank officials incinerated more than a dozen huge boxes filled with the old currency before a group of reporters,” reports the AP.
Over the weekend, Bush said the new currency is a symbol of progress (doesn’t have Saddam’s picture on it). “The new dinar will be used throughout Iraq, thereby unifying the economy and the country,” he says. It features a picture of a “a Babylonian ruler and Iraqi antiquities.” Also, a “10th century mathematician.” The head of the Iraqi central bank explained it all in a news conference. The BBC reports that Iraqis will be permitted to use the old dinar during an exchange period of three months, and after that, presumably, old notes will be banned by force of law. The exchange rate is 2,000 per dollar,says this source. This should be very interesting to watch.
