The Libyan dinar
Currency · LYD · 1 country
The Central Bank of Libya issues the dinar, which replaced the Libyan pound at par in September 1971 and divides into 1,000 dirhams. The bank has pegged it to the Special Drawing Rights basket since 18 March 1986 and adjusts the rate from time to time. Since 2016 a branch of the divided bank in the east has also put out notes.
No sign of its own
The dinar has no sign of its own in the records here. Libyans write LD in Latin script and ل.د in Arabic, the initials of Libyan dinar in each. Prices carry three decimal places, because the dinar divides into 1,000 dirhams, which are abbreviated dh.
- ISO code
- LYD
- ISO number
- 434
- Subunit
- dirham, 1/1,000
An amount, written out
LYD 1,234.500
- LYD 1,234.500English
- 1.234,500 د.ل.ArabicLibya
Where the Libyan dinar is the official currency
Libya uses the dinar, and since 2016 both halves of its divided central bank have issued notes, under a common exchange rate agreed in December 2020.
About the Libyan dinar
Who issued Libyan money before the dinar
A Libyan Currency Committee, set up in 1951, backed the local currency with sterling assets. It had no say over the money supply or credit and did not supervise the banks. The Central Bank of Libya took its place on 1 April 1956.
The bank is wholly owned by the Libyan state. Its mandate now rests on Banking Law No. 1 of 2005, amended by Law No. 46 of 2012, and the law names it as the institution that issues notes and coins. Its general administration sits in Tripoli, with branches in Benghazi, Sirte and Sebha and issuing departments in Gharyan and Al-Bayda. The bank also holds the state's gold and foreign currency reserves.
How the Libyan dinar has been pegged
The dinar arrived in September 1971 at par with the pound and was pegged at 2.80 Special Drawing Rights. In February 1973 Libya moved the peg to the US dollar, at 0.29679 dinar per dollar, and kept it there until 1986. On 18 March 1986 the peg went back to the SDR at the old rate of 2.80. From 1 May 1986 the dinar could trade within a band of 7.5% around it, and that band was widened several times.
A gap opened between the official and the black-market rate. Libya's divided central bank agreed a single exchange rate at its first meeting in years, in December 2020, and from 3 January 2021 the devalued rate applied to every transaction. The bank's own figure after its adjustment of 6 April 2025 was 0.1349 SDR per dinar.
What happened to Libyan notes after the revolution
Note changes have been abrupt before. On 15 May 1980 the state issued new LD5 and LD10 notes and gave citizens one week to exchange the old ones at bank branches, capped at LD1,000 of new notes per person. The old notes became worthless after that week.
From 2008 the LD50 note carried Gaddafi's portrait. After the civil war of 2011 the Central Bank began withdrawing it on 14 January 2012 and gave holders until 15 March. Revised LD5 and LD10 notes dropped the Gaddafi-era term Jamahiriya, and the LD10 carried English for the first time in two decades. De La Rue of the United Kingdom and Oberthur each printed a version of it. On 17 February 2013 the bank issued an LD1 note showing protesters with the rebel flag, the first of a new series that ran to LD50. Polymer followed, on the LD1 in 2019, the LD5 in 2021 and the LD20 in 2025.
Why some Libyan dinars were printed in Russia
Since 2016 the part of the Central Bank of Libya allied with the House of Representatives has issued dinars of its own, LD20 and LD50 notes and an LD1 coin, printed and struck by Goznak in Russia. They answered a shortage of cash in the east of the country. Libya had two rival governments by then, one in the east and one in the west.
How Libyans speak about the dinar
In speech the dinar is jni in the west and jneh in the east, from the British guinea. Nobody says dirham. People count in garsh instead, ten dirhams to the garsh, and call a thousand dinars a kilo; the money as a whole is also called Omar El-Mokhtar, after the figure on the face of the LD10 note. Coins of 1, 5, 10 and 20 dirhams are rarely used. The 50 and 100 dirham pieces and the quarter and half dinar, first issued in 2001 and 2004, carry the small change.
Common questions
Questions about the Libyan dinar
Why does the Libyan dinar have three decimal places?
Because it divides into 1,000 dirhams. Until 1975 old coins in milliemes, each equal to a dirham, were still in circulation, and the coins issued that year ran from 1 to 100 dirhams. In daily speech Libyans skip the dirham and count in garsh, worth ten dirhams each.
What is the Libyan dinar pegged to?
The Special Drawing Rights basket. The Central Bank of Libya moved the dinar onto the SDR on 18 March 1986, after thirteen years pegged to the US dollar, and it publishes the dinar's rates against other currencies from their movements against the SDR. The bank adjusts the peg from time to time. Its figure after the adjustment of 6 April 2025 was 0.1349 SDR per dinar, and on 3 January 2021 the dinar was devalued to a single rate for every transaction.
Why were some Libyan dinars printed in Russia?
From 2016 the eastern branch of the Central Bank of Libya, allied with the House of Representatives, issued LD20 and LD50 notes and an LD1 coin made by Goznak in Russia. It did so to meet a shortage of cash in the east, at a time when Libya had rival governments in the east and west and its central bank was divided as well. Libya's divided central bank agreed a common exchange rate in December 2020 at its first board meeting in years.
What do Libyans call the dinar?
Jni in the western dialect and jneh in the east. The word comes from the guinea, the British gold coin worth twenty-one shillings, and the Egyptian pound has a similar name. A thousand dinars is a kilo. Younger men call the LD5 and LD10 notes faifa and tsena, playful forms of the English five and ten.