The banknotes of Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti
(صدام حسين عبد المجيد التكريتي)
28 April 1937-30 December 2006

Saddam was born in the town of Al-Awja ,13 km from the town of Tikrit to a family of shepherd from the al-Begat tribe. His mother, Subha Tulfah al-Mussallat, named her newborn son Saddam, which in Arabic means "One who confronts”.Saddam never knew his father and his brother died of cancer shortly afterwards.He lived with his uncle Khairallah Talfah until he was 3.His mother remarried and Saddam was teated harshly by his stepfather and he fled to live with his uncle(Also future father in law).Saddam dropped out of secondary school in 1957 to join revolutionary pan-Arab Ba'ath Party which his uncle supported.In 1958 army officer led by General Abdul Karim Qassim overthrew King Faisal II of Iraq. The Ba'athists opposed the new government and Army officers with ties to the Ba'ath Party overthrew Qassim in a coup in 1963.Prior to his imprisonment until 1968,Saddam Saddam held the position of Ba'ath party secretary. Saddam played a key role in the 1968 coup that brought the party to long-term power and became vice president under the ailing General Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr and through a few events rose to power and became 5th President of Iraq.Saddam had also improved a few aspects in his country.He was involved in the Iran-Iraq war and the first Persian Gulf War(Kuwait) and finally deposed in the 2003 Invasion of Iraq by the USA and its allies.Many Kurds and Iraqis died under his rule.

There two types of banknotes in Iraq,the Saddam dinars and the Swiss dinar,Swiss dinar will be in the next post. Iraq's currency was printed both locally and in China, using poor grade wood pulp paper (rather than cotton or linen) and inferior quality litography (some notes were reputedly printed on presses designed for printing newspapers).

Counterfeited banknotes often appeared to be of better quality than real notes. Despite the collapse in the value of the Iraqi dinar, the highest denomination printed until 2002 was 250 dinars.

In 2002, the Central Bank of Iraq issued a 10,000-dinars banknote to be used for "larger, and inter-bank transactions". This note was rarely accepted in practice due to fears of looting and counterfeiting. This forced people to carry around stacks of 250-dinars notes for everyday use.
Here are the banknotes

(I have hundreds of these banknotes for sale,except first 2 notes)
(1991)

(1990-1993)


























(2001-2002)

















Captured by US forces on December 13, 2003, Saddam was brought to trial under the Iraqi interim gvernment set up by US led forces. On November 5,2006, he was convicted of charges related to the executions of 148 Iraqi Shi'ites suspected of planning an assassination attempt against him, and was sentenced to death by hanging. Saddam was executed on December 30,2006

This letter was released by Saddam’s lawyers not long before his execution
To the great nation, to the people of our country, and humanity,
Many of you have known the writer of this letter to be faithful, honest, caring for others, wise, of sound judgment, just, decisive, careful with the wealth of the people and the state ... and that his heart is big enough to embrace all without discrimination.You have known your brother and leader very well and he never bowed to the despots and, in accordance with the wishes of those who loved him, remained a sword and a banner.This is how you want your brother, son or leader to be ... and those who will lead you (in the future) should have the same qualifications.Here, I offer my soul to God as a sacrifice, and if He wants, He will send it to heaven with the martyrs, or, He will postpone that ... so let us be patient and depend on Him against the unjust nations.Remember that God has enabled you to become an example of love, forgiveness and brotherly coexistence ... I call on you not to hate because hate does not leave a space for a person to be fair and it makes you blind and closes all doors of thinking and keeps away one from balanced thinking and making the right choice.I also call on you not to hate the peoples of the other countries that attacked us and differentiate between the decision-makers and peoples. Anyone who repents - whether in Iraq or abroad - you must forgive him.You should know that among the aggressors, there are people who support your struggle against the invaders, and some of them volunteered for the legal defence of prisoners, including Saddam Hussein ... some of these people wept profusely when they said goodbye to me.Dear faithful people, I say goodbye to you, but I will be with the merciful God who helps those who take refuge in him and who will never disappoint any faithful, honest believer ... God is Great ... God is great ... Long live our nation ... Long live our great struggling people ... Long live Iraq, long live Iraq ... Long live Palestine ... Long live jihad and the mujahedeen (the insurgency).Saddam Hussein President and Commander in Chief of the Iraqi Mujahed Armed Forces
Additional clarification note:I have written this letter because the lawyers told me that the so-called criminal court — established and named by the invaders — will allow the so-called defendants the chance for a last word. But that court and its chief judge did not give us the chance to say a word, and issued its verdict without explanation and read out the sentence — dictated by the invaders — without presenting the evidence. I wanted the people to know this. (Letter by Saddam Hussein)
Saddam was buried at his birthplace of Al-Awja in Tikrit, Iraq, 3 km (2 mi) from his sons Uday and Qusay Hussein, on December 31, 2006

"A great leader who never gave up till the end"