The UAE dirham
Currency · AED · 1 country
A federal Currency Board put the dirham into circulation on 19 May 1973, retiring the Bahraini dinar in Abu Dhabi and the Qatar and Dubai riyal in the other emirates. The Central Bank of the UAE has issued it since the Currency Board gave way under Union Law No. 10 of 1980. Since November 1997 it has been pegged to the US dollar at 3.6725 dirhams.
No sign of its own
Amounts are written AED, Dh or Dhs, or د.إ in Arabic, because the dirham had no sign until the central bank unveiled one on 27 March 2025: a Latin D crossed by two horizontal lines drawn from the flag. As of February 2026 it had no Unicode codepoint yet and was scheduled as U+20C3 in Unicode 18.0.
- ISO code
- AED
- ISO number
- 784
- Subunit
- fils, 1/100
An amount, written out
AED 1,234.50
- AED 1,234.50English
- 1,234.50 د.إ.ArabicUnited Arab Emirates
Where the United Arab Emirates dirham is the official currency
All the emirates of the United Arab Emirates spend it, one federal money where Abu Dhabi and its neighbours once used two different ones.
About the United Arab Emirates dirham
How the emirates ended up with one money
Until 1966 all the emirates that now form the UAE used the Gulf rupee, pegged at parity to the Indian rupee. On 6 June 1966 India devalued the Gulf rupee against its own, and the Gulf states that refused to follow looked elsewhere. Every Trucial State except Abu Dhabi moved to the Qatar and Dubai riyal, with a brief spell on the Saudi riyal during the switch. Abu Dhabi took the Bahraini dinar, at ten Gulf rupees to the dinar.
The dirham ended that split in 1973. Abu Dhabi exchanged its dinars at ten dirhams each. The other emirates swapped their riyals one for one.
The name travelled far before it reached the Gulf. It is a loan from the Greek drakhmé, and the word survived through the Ottoman Empire.
Which law gives the central bank its monopoly
Union Law No. 2 of 1973 set up the Currency Board, which issued the first notes. Law No. 10 of 1980, on the Central Bank, the Monetary System and the Organization of Banking, replaced the board with the Central Bank of the UAE, and the bank's own notes followed in 1982.
The present statute dates from 2025. Article 173 of Federal Decree-Law No. 6 of 2025 makes it a crime to mutilate, destroy or tear up currency publicly and on purpose, punishable by prison, by a fine of at least 10,000 dirhams, or by both.
Commemorative coins have appeared since 1976 in gold, silver and circulation metal. Government bodies and banks can ask the central bank to strike one for an occasion, and the bank can decide to on its own.
What ties the dirham to the dollar
On 28 January 1978 the dirham was officially pegged to the IMF's special drawing rights. In practice it tracked the US dollar for most of that time. The link became formal in November 1997, at US$1 to 3.6725 dirhams, and it has held at that rate since.
Which notes and coins are in circulation
The 1973 notes ran from one dirham to 100, and a 1,000 followed on 3 January 1976. The second issue of 1982 dropped the one and the 1,000. A 500 came in 1983 and a 200 in 1989, and the 1,000 returned in 2000. Arabic text and Eastern Arabic numerals fill the front of each note; English and Western numerals fill the back.
Polymer arrived with a 50 dirham note released on 7 December 2021 for the country's golden jubilee. Polymer 5 and 10 dirham notes followed on 21 April 2022, and a polymer 1,000 in the first half of 2023.
The coins run from 1 fils to 1 dirham. In 1995 the central bank shrank several of them and gave the 50 fils a new outline, a heptagon with curved sides. The shrinking left a trap. The old round 50 fils is close enough in size to the new dirham that the two get confused in change. The dirham also matches the Philippine one peso coin in size, which was publicly known by August 2006 and fed a vending machine fraud. The small fils coins see little everyday use, and cash totals are rounded to multiples of 25 fils.
Why the dirham went so long without a sign
For five decades amounts were written as AED, Dh or Dhs, or as د.إ in Arabic. On 27 March 2025 the central bank unveiled a symbol for printed and digital use, meant for receipts, price tags, cheques, cash machines and trading screens.
Common questions
Questions about the United Arab Emirates dirham
Is the dirham pegged to the US dollar?
Yes. The dirham has been fixed at 3.6725 to one US dollar since November 1997. On paper it was first pegged to the IMF's special drawing rights, on 28 January 1978, but it followed the dollar for most of the years in between.
What does the new UAE dirham symbol look like?
The Central Bank of the UAE unveiled it on 27 March 2025. It is the Latin letter D crossed by two horizontal lines with curved ends, and the government says the lines take their inspiration from the national flag. A second version for the digital dirham sets the D inside a ring in the flag's colours. The bank wants the sign on receipts, invoices, price tags, cash machines, banking apps and trading platforms. Fonts could not type it as of February 2026, because Unicode had not yet assigned it a codepoint; it was scheduled as U+20C3 in version 18.0.
What did the emirates use before the dirham?
Abu Dhabi used the Bahraini dinar and the other emirates used the Qatar and Dubai riyal, both adopted after India devalued the Gulf rupee in June 1966. When the dirham arrived in 1973, Abu Dhabi exchanged each dinar for ten dirhams and the riyal was swapped at par.
Why do shops in the UAE round prices to 25 fils?
The 1, 5 and 10 fils coins are rarely used in daily life, although the central bank still produces them, and so cash amounts are rounded up or down to the nearest multiple of 25 fils. A bill of 7.60 dirhams is settled as 7.50 in cash, and one of 7.65 as 7.75.