The Algerian dinar
Currency · DZD · 1 country
A presidential decree created the Algerian dinar in April 1964, and the Banque centrale d'Algérie put its first four notes into circulation that year. It replaced the Algerian new franc at par, two years after independence from France. The Bank of Algeria issues it today; the centime survives mostly in speech, where prices are still counted in hundredths.
No sign of its own
The dinar has no sign of its own. Amounts are written with an abbreviation of the name: DA, for dinar algérien, in Latin script, and د.ج, the initials of دينار جزائري, in Arabic. A banknote therefore reads 1000 DA. The hundredth, the centime, left the coinage but not the spoken language.
- ISO code
- DZD
- ISO number
- 012
- Subunit
- centime, 1/100
An amount, written out
DZD 1,234.50
- DZD 1,234.50English
- 1.234,50 د.ج.ArabicAlgeria
Where the Algerian dinar is the official currency
The dinar circulates in Algeria alone, where the Bank of Algeria issues notes from three series still in use.
About the Algerian dinar
Who issued the dinar after independence
The dinar was created by presidential decree in 1964, and in the same year the Banque centrale d'Algérie issued a first series of four notes, for 5, 10, 50 and 100 dinars. The Bank of Algeria's own account says the series showed landscapes from the north and the south of the country. The central bank, today the Bank of Algeria, has issued the currency ever since.
What the franc left behind
France administered Algeria from 1830 to 1962, and the dinar replaced the Algerian new franc at par. The decree of 10 April 1964 set the new dinar notes of 100, 50 and 10 against the new-franc notes of the same values and against the old-franc notes of 10,000, 5,000 and 1,000. The 5 dinar note, decided that December, copied the design of the 500 francs d'Algérie of 1958.
The French left words as well. The Arabic santīm comes from the French centime. The name dinar goes back further, to the Roman denarius.
How each series of notes chose its theme
The Bank of Algeria groups its notes by theme. After the first series came one on industrial growth, issued from 1970 to 1978, and one on ruins and building, from 1981 to 1984. None of those three is still in circulation. The 1964 notes stopped being legal tender on 31 December 1998, and the bank went on exchanging them for ten more years.
The notes in use belong to three later series. History and heritage ran from 1992 to 1998; its 1,000 dinars carried the rock paintings of Tassili n'Ajjer, and every note had a micro-printed window thread beside the watermark. Tradition and modernity began in 2011 with a 2,000 dinar note and ran until 2018. Heroes of the revolution, a series of coins and notes, started in 2021. At the end of 2022 the bank also issued a polymer 2,000 dinars for the sixtieth anniversary of independence and the Arab League summit in Algiers.
Why prices are still read in centimes
A new set of coins in 1992 ran from a quarter dinar to 100 dinars, and a bimetallic 200 dinars followed in 2012. The coins of 10 dinars and up are bimetallic. Inflation in the late 1990s pushed the centime and the fractional dinar coins out of use. The one and two dinar coins now turn up rarely, and shop prices are rounded to the nearest five dinars. Speech kept the old unit. A price of 100 dinars is said as ten thousand, counted in centimes.
Where the official rate and the street part ways
The Bank of Algeria publishes an official exchange rate. A parallel market in Algiers, around Square Port-Saïd, trades the dinar against the euro and the US dollar at rates well apart from the official ones.
Common questions
Questions about the Algerian dinar
What does DA mean on Algerian prices?
DA stands for dinar algérien, the French name of the currency, and it is how amounts are written in Latin script: 500 DA, 2000 DA. In Arabic the abbreviation is د.ج, from the initials of dinar jazāʾirī. The dinar has no special sign of its own.
Why do Algerians say ten thousand for a hundred dinars?
Because spoken prices are still counted in centimes, the hundredth of the dinar. The centime coins dropped out of use after the inflation of the late 1990s, and even the one and two dinar coins are rare, since shops round to the nearest five dinars. The habit of speech outlived the coins. So a price tag of 100 DA is read aloud as ten thousand, and larger sums scale up the same way.
When did Algeria switch from the franc to the dinar?
In April 1964, two years after independence. A presidential decree created the dinar and it replaced the Algerian new franc at par. The first dinar notes, for 5, 10, 50 and 100 dinars, came from the Banque centrale d'Algérie that same year. They took the place of the new-franc notes of the same values and of the old-franc notes of 10,000, 5,000 and 1,000, and the 5 dinar note borrowed its design from a franc note of 1958.
Are there polymer banknotes in Algeria?
Yes, one. At the end of 2022 the Bank of Algeria issued a polymer 2,000 dinar note marking sixty years of independence and the Arab League summit held in Algiers. The other notes in circulation are paper, from the series the bank calls history and heritage, tradition and modernity, and heroes of the revolution.