Afghani

The Afghani is the system of currency used in Afghanistan. Prior to 2003, one Afghani was worth about US$0.0000232558. 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.

However, on January 2, 2003, a three-month transition period ended swapping old Afghani banknotes for new currency. The new afghani retained the name but had three zeros knocked off, making one Afghani worth $0.0232558 in US dollars (or one US dollar with 43 Afghanis).

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 Afghani was worth about US$0.000015625.

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Afghani is sometimes mistakenly used to describe people from Afghanistan (the correct term is Afghan).

Jamal al-Din al-Afghani was an Iranian-born Muslim nationalist and modernist in the early 20th century.