Islamic State announces minting new currency, in Hollywood style
The Islamic State has released a video that heavily borrows footage from Hollywood war movies and introduces its newly minted currency: the gold dinar.
The Islamic State has released a video that heavily borrows footage from Hollywood war movies and introduces its newly minted currency: the gold dinar.
The hour-long video titled 'The return of the gold dinar' was released by the jihadist group on Saturday.
Islamic State's policy-making Shura Council last year tasked its Beit al Mal, or treasury, with minting the coins, which come in several denominations made of gold, silver and copper, according to a Bloomberg report.
The Islamic State has amassed a war chest of millions of dollars, partly through collecting taxes, and by gaining control of oil refineries. Bank and jewellery store robberies, extortion, smuggling and kidnapping for ransom are other important sources of revenue for the group.
US officials say the Islamic State has become a self-sustaining financial force, as the group earns more than three million dollars a day.
The group described the move as a "second blow" to the US after 9/11.
The video also shows war footage from several popular American movies. The narration in the video has an American accent.
The coins are imprinted with Islamic symbols and "are completely void of human and animal images in accordance with Shariah law", according to the narrator in the propaganda video.