Qatar’s currency and its evolution

Currency has always been vital for trade and reach ever since time out of mind and has skilled many changes throughout history. Qatar’s history with the medium of exchange goes way back in time.

Origins of Qatar’s currency

It all started between 644 to 656 Christian era , mostly referred to as CE during the age of Uthman Caliphate.

If there’s anything which has remained within the long history of the currency in the State of Qatar when compared to the caliphate era to today’s modern-day, it is the name of the coins – Dirhams– that may also hold their place till date.

The standards of the bimetallic dirhams were established during the Caliph Omar/Umar’s period. Dinar was the opposite coin that was similarly used some time past , too. The dirham (silver) and dinar (gold) remained because the coins for trade and other activities and was utilized in the Muslim world for on the brink of 1,500 years!

Timeline of Qatar’s currency

The uniformity within the look of those Islamic coins happened during the Omar caliphate era and it had been officially sanctioned for the Dirham to be made out of pure silver and to weigh 3 grams.

These Islamic coins formed the idea of national and international trade in the center East and for transactions around much of the planet , too, as historical records have seen its use by multiple nationalities and tribes.

There has been evidence of Arab coins being found in Russia and as far because the Baltic states, too. Slowly, paper money , which was initially introduced to the planet by China during the Gaykhatu Empire rule, began to make its way into the mainstream during the Ottoman Caliphate, round the 19th century in Turkey where they first printed notes in 1842. This was the start of the currency notes within the world.

Although folding money always faced opposition with reference to the shariah , it had been eventually accepted thanks to global trade and increasing demands.

Here may be a glance at the timeline of the currency of Qatar, from the time of its origin until today.

The present-day Qatari riyal

The Qatari riyal is the only currency of the entire State of the Qatar.
It was first introduced on 19th May 1973, after its sanction.
Qatari notes and coins are issued by the Qatar financial institution who also oversee the monetary stability and regulatory control of the currency.
The Qatari riyal is split into 100 dirhams and is abbreviated as QR or QAR.
The banknotes or bills were released within the denominations of 1, 5, 10, 50, 100 and 500 Riyals.
The coins were released within the denominations of 1, 5, 10, 25 and 50 dirhams.
The ISO 4217 code for the Qatari riyal is QAR.
The Qatari riyal has been changed to the US Dollar which is around 1 USD = 3.64 Riyal since in the month of July 2001.