Photo: Reuters

Eight months after announcing plans to mint its own currency, ISIS is ready to start issuing coins. Last November, the group said it wanted to give Muslims the opportunity to live outside the “global economic system that is based on satanic usury.” It planned to do so with two gold coins, three silver coins, and two copper coins of varying denominations. Now photos have emerged of the ISIS gold coins — emblazoned with Arabic text, which translates to “The Islamic State — a caliphate based on the doctrine of the Prophet.”



ISIS has set its own exchange rate and would like the world to think that one gold dinar is equal to $139 U.S. dollars. But the coins, which feature images of wheat stalks and a map of the world, are only worth as much as the precious metals in them, experts say. As one analyst told Mashable, “No country will ever recognize [the currency] as legitimate.”