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The E-Sylum:  Volume 4, Number 47, November 18, 2001, Article 11

TRADE IN AFGHANI NOTES    

  An article in the November 14, 2001 Wall Street Journal   
  (pC1) discusses the hot market in trading Afghanistan's   
  currency.  "The afghani, Afghanistan's long-suffering currency,   
  has the perverse tendency to go up whenever sitting   
  governments fall."   Savvy traders who rushed to purchase   
  the currency after September 11th have seen the currency   
  rise 94%.   The article has a photo of traders in Peshawar,   
  Pakistan exchanging large bundles of afghani notes.  "One   
  day recently, trading continued even as tear-gas fumes   
  wafted over from a nearby demonstration. "They were   
  crying, but they didn't stop trading."    

  "Even more than currencies in other developing countries,   
  the market in afghanis is unusual.  For one thing, the currency   
  hasn't been printed by the Taliban government since it came   
  to power in 1996.  Instead, the afghani actually comes from   
  printing presses run by the opposition Northern Alliance,   
  and there are two varieties.  Afghanis printed under the   
  auspices of the alliance's late Tajik commander, Ahmed   
  Shaw Masood, are more widely accepted in Taliban   
  areas than those printed by the alliance's Uzbek commander,   
  Abdul Rashid Dostrum, though only by the last two digits of   
  the serial number can one tell them apart."     

  "The afghani's value has plummeted so far over the years   
  that the highest note, 10,000 afghanis, has to be carried in   
  thick stacks to be of any value."    

  Below are some web pages with more information about   
  the afghani currency:    

  http://www.tribuneindia.com/20010925/photos/pages/24photo14.htm   
  http://afg.afghanteens.net/money/   
  http://www.rediff.com/money/2001/sep/27afghan.htm   

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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