Investing in dinars, is it worth it??

[ProPlus]

After watching the afgan war the currency dipped, then came back up again, I figured the same would happen with the dinar considering:

565.00 GBP United Kingdom Pounds = 1,490,265.88 IQD
Iraq Dinars

At one stage a dinar was worth £1.60.

N.B. Also seen this on ebay, so others have already jumped on the band wagon.

Is it worth the investment of say £1000 just in case it does ever go back up.

Don't need telling that if you can afford to lose it crap as I already know that.

[shirley temple]

makes sense to me if you have a spare grand or so, probably take a few years for the Iraqi economy to recover, but logic/oil dictates that it will!

[speedychrissie]

in theory it should recover healthily (although it will probably take quite a long time before it returns to previous levels). but there is ofcourse no guarantee and you have no way of telling how world politics will affect it in the years to come.

chris

[zcacogp]

Blimey, currency dealing on EBay?

What next!


Oli.

[clubsport]

Is there an efficient way of dealing in the currency? With a conversion rate like that the bid/offer spread will be very wide...

The nightmare with trades such as this,,is that if you just do it without the proper research or conviction then why bother..if it goes your way,,,you will be kicking yourself for only doing a grand.

[mojocvh]

Hmmm, like has been already said if you can't afford to lose it etc...BUT what if they decide to reinvent the currancy in a short timescale??

MoJo.

[.Adam.]

See here, or here.
Looks like you will have to take a trip to Iraq if you want to cash it in. We got a flyer at work about this, and I thought it sounded to good to be true, and after a bit of web crawling, I decided it was!

>> Edited by .Adam. on Saturday 20th August 19:00

[munky]

Don't touch it with a bargepole. I used to work on an FX trading floor. With minor currencies there are so many unpredictable factors and events that can really ruin your day. I haven't checked it, but I'd expect the bid/offer spread is so wide you could drive a bus through it

Edited to add:
www.usatoday.com/money/world/2004-08-03-dinars_x.htm

http://money.cnn.com/2004/08/10/pf/expert/ask_expert/

>> Edited by munky on Monday 22 August 02:16

[silversun]

Nope. Really bad idea. See below (from the Guardian's money pages).

Should we buy Iraqi dinars?

I recently heard of someone who bought 1,000 Iraqi dinars via the internet and actually received 1,000 dinar banknotes.

He is now trying to persuade my son-in-law to do the same, on the basis that the currency could triple in value within a few years. I am sceptical about the whole business. Am I right?
DG, Honiton

The new Iraqi dinar, issued in October 2003 to unify the previous old dinar and so-called swiss dinar, is not traded outside Iraq. The argument is that when (or perhaps if) Iraqi dinars are traded internationally and the oil starts to flow, punters will make a killing. Perhaps.

I wonder how much your friend paid. Online currency converters show 1,000 dinars to be worth 38p. Several websites sell dinars and they are even auctioned on eBay at much higher prices.

This is beyond even the most speculative investment. Give the money to charity instead.