Kuwait Banknotes One Kuwaiti Dinar Note 1980-1991 Central Bank of Kuwait
Obverse: State Emblem of Kuwait, with the Telecommunications Centre in Kuwit City to the left.
Reverse: Kuwait fort.
Denomination: 1 Dinar
Size: 138 mm x 68 mm
The front of 1-dinar note depicts the Telecommunications Centre in Kuwait City, which was one of the most modern buildings in Kuwait at the time the notes were issued. In contrast, the back of the note shows part of the old mud wall that used to surround Kuwait City.
Kuwait banknotes - Kuwait paper money
Third Issue
Following the accession of His Highness Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, the third issue was put into circulation by Central Bank of Kuwait on February 20, 1980, in the denominations of 1/4, 1/2, 1, 5 and 10 Dinars. On February 9, 1986, a 20 Dinars note was put into circulation. Due to the exceptional circumstances ensuing from the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990, this third issue was withdrawn from circulation effective March 24, 1991, and ceased to be a legal tender after 45 days from that date. The right of exchanging these notes at the Central Bank of Kuwait expired on Saturday, September 30, 1991.
Third Issue
Following the accession of Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah to the leadership of Kuwait in 1977, a third issue of banknotes was issued by Kuwait. Introduced on 20 February 1980 the issue is notable for the lack of the Amir’s portrait. It is a belief amongst many Muslims that it is inappropriate for men to replicate animate objects, as these are the work of God and men should not attempt to imitate God. This is not a strict tenet of Islam and many Muslims are happy to illustrate animals, others are happy to produce portraits of dead people, and some Muslims take little heed of the tradition. It would appear that the new issue of banknotes addresses this concern, as no person is depicted on this series of notes. Replacing the portrait of the Amir on the right-hand side of the note is the State Emblem of Kuwait.
The notes of this issue are far more colourful than the notes of the previous issue and show a complete change in style of design. While the body of the designs are delineated with an intaglio frame, there is no white border on the notes and the colours cover the entire note. The text on the front of the notes remains unchanged from the previous issue. The watermark for the notes is a dhow. Also in the area reserved for viewing the watermark is the image of a dhow worked into the under-print. The clarity of this image differs from note to note and from the initial release, where the image is generally weak, to later releases where the image is quite distinct. Introduced to all notes of this issue is a ‘perfect registration’ device, where a pattern, generally circular and located between the two signatures on the front of the note, registers perfectly with a similar pattern on the back of the note. A solid security thread is used for all notes of this issue and each note of the initial issues carries a fluorescent feature of the denomination of the note. The denomination appears in the centre on the front of the notes, with the Arabic numerals appearing as a gold colour. The back of each note carries an illustration and the name of the issuing authority and the denomination in English.
The illustrations on the notes of this series differ from those of the first two series, but they continue the use of symbols of modern Kuwait mixed with images of their heritage. In addition to the illustration that dominates the back of each note, a small vignette appears to the left on the front of each note. The quarter-dinar note celebrates Kuwaits riches in oil by depicting a refinery on the back of the note and an oil derrick on the front. The half-dinar note shows a view of Kuwait Harbour on the back and the ‘Kuwait Towers’ on the front. The Kuwait Towers have become a symbol of Kuwait. The larger tower has water storage facilities, a revolving restaurant and a viewing platform. The smaller tower is used just for water storage, whilst a third tower is used to illuminate the two main towers at night. The front of 1-dinar note depicts the Telecommunications Centre in Kuwait City, which was one of the most modern buildings in Kuwait at the time the notes were issued. In contrast, the back of the note shows part of the old mud wall that used to surround Kuwait City. The back of the 5-dinar note shows the Seif Palace, which is the administrative headquarters of the Amir of Kuwait. A minaret of the al-Hilali Mosque in Kuwait City is shown on the front of the 5-dinar note. The 10-dinar note shows two traditional aspects of Kuwaiti culture. Falconry is one of the traditional sports of the Kuwaitis and the falcon on its hunting stand, on the front of the note, represents a tradition that is now practised only by wealthy Kuwaitis. The traditional boum, which appeared on the earlier 10-dinar notes, again appears on the back of the 10-dinar note of this series.
The initial release of notes for this issue contained the five denominations that had been used in the two previous series. However, on 9 February 1986 a new denomination of 20 dinars was introduced into circulation. Similar in style to the other notes of this issue, the new denomination carries several features that are different to other notes that had already been released. One of the more obvious features appears just below the watermark, where the Braille characters ‘20’ are used to assist sight-impaired people identify the notes. The watermark for this note differs to the watermark used on the other denominations. Instead of the dhow, which is common to all other notes in this issue, the 20-dinar note uses the head of a falcon as its watermark. The 20-dinar note also does not have a fluorescent feature like the other notes in this issue, but it does have fibres imbedded in the paper that fluoresce when subjected to ultra-violet light. The grey and green ink in the panel beneath the text indicating the denomination of the note also fluoresces. Two new features are introduced with the 20-dinar note: the use of a latent image and the use of micro-printing. The latent image, of the denomination of the note, appears in the intaglio panel at the bottom right on the front of the note. The micro-printing, of the text ‘Central Bank of Kuwait’ (in English), appears on the back of the note at the very bottom left. The 20-dinar note depicts two of the more modern buildings in Kuwait City. On the front is the façade of the building that houses the Kuwait Stock Exchange. The back of the note carries an illustration of the Justice Centre, which houses the superior courts of Kuwait.
During the life of the third issue, there were modifications made to the five lower denomination notes. These notes were initially issued with the pattern of the under-print covering the entire note, but in a later release of these notes the pattern did not extend to the margins at the top and bottom beyond the border defined by the intaglio printing. While the colour of the under-print remains in the margin, the pattern is no longer apparent. This change defines two varieties for the five low denominations. There are also two changes on the later issues that concern the use of fluorescent inks. Firstly, the denomination of each note now appears in a block of fluorescent ink in the centre of the note, with numerals indicating the denomination formed by the absence of ink. Secondly, the serial number in the lower left now fluoresces when submitted to ultra-violet light.
There are a number of signature combinations for this issue, with the first variety of the five lower denominations having three signature combinations. (Note: Signature No.3 is yet to be confirmed for the 5-dinar note.) The second variety of these notes has only one signature combination. The 20-dinar note has two signature combinations. The signature combinations (referred to in the details of the note issues that follow) are:
Governor of the Bank Minister of Finance
Signatures No.2 Hamza Abbas Abdul Rahman al-Atiquel
Signatures No.3 Hamza Abbas Abdul Latif al-Hamad
Signatures No.4 Abdul Wahab al-Tammar Ali Khalifa al-Sabah
Signatures No.5 Abdul Wahab al-Tammar Jassa, Mohammad al-Kharafi
Signatures No.6 Salem Abdul Aziz Sa'ud al-Sabah Jassa, Mohammad al-Kharafi
The third issue of notes contains one of the more dramatic, if often unobserved, mistakes by a security printer. When the second variety of notes in this series was prepared (i.e. the notes without the pattern in the upper and lower borders), micro-printed text was added to each note. On the front of each denomination the name of the issuing authority appears micro-printed in English and on the back of the notes the name of the issuing authority is micro-printed in Arabic. However, on the 5-dinar note the Arabic micro-printed text reads ‘The Central Bank of Yemen’ rather than ‘The Central Bank of Kuwait’. It is understood that these notes were printed by Thomas De La Rue, who was also preparing notes for Yemen at this time.
The serial numbers for this series of notes differs from the previous issue, in that the simple fractional prefix gives way to a fractional prefix that uses letters of the alphabet to indicate the series and the denomination of the notes. The letters of the alphabet are used in their numeric sequence, with the initial form of the third letter in the sequence (ج) used as the right-hand character in all prefixes to indicate that this is the third series. (The previous two series had used ا and ب, the first two letters in the sequence, in their serial number prefixes.) The left-hand character in the fractional prefix is different for each denomination, with each denomination being assigned a letter of the alphabet, ascending in the numeric order of the alphabet. The assignations for each denomination, including the series identifier, are:
جـا ¼ dinar
جـب ½ dinar
جـجـ 1 dinar
جـد 5 dinars
جـهـ 10 dinars
جـو 20 dinars
Two years after the release of the third issue in 1980, moves were made to demonetize the two earlier issues of notes. As indicated earlier, the first two series were officially withdrawn from circulation on 1 February 1982 and both ceased to be legal tender on 31 May 1982.
In August 1990 Kuwait was invaded by Iraq but the occupation was short, with forces of the United Nations, led by the United States of America, liberating Kuwait in February 1991. During the occupation of Kuwait, Iraqi forces took possession of large amounts of Kuwaiti banknotes. The serial number prefixes of the notes taken by the invading army are listed in the following chart:
¼ dinar 54 to 68
½ dinar 30 to 37
1 dinar 47 to 53
5 dinars 18 to 20
10 dinars 70 to 87
20 dinars 9 to 13
Due to many notes being stolen during the Iraqi invasion, the third series was withdrawn from circulation with effect from 24 March 1991 and ceased to be a legal tender forty-five days after that date. The notes could still be redeemed at the Central Bank of Kuwait after they lost their legal tender status, until they were demonetized on 30 September, 1991.