on september 1 1969 muammar gaddafi staged a coup against king idris and he was deposed the republic
of libya was created shortly after the coup and the central bank of libya was established in 1971
and the libyan dinar was created the first notes issued by the central bank of libya are
recognizable by the number one in front of the serial number this series features the coat of
arms of libya the marcus aurelius arch and omar al-mukhtar known as the lion of the desert on
the obverse various landscapes from around libya such as mosques oil refineries and fortresses are
also found on the reverse one version of these banknotes has part of quran verse translated as
do not use your property among yourselves in illegal ways and then deliberately bribe
the rulers with your property so that you may wrongly acquire the property of others these
can be differentiated from pick numbers a and b in 1980 the second series of banknotes was released
and they were distinguishable by the number two on the front of the serial number they featured
updated images of libya's landmarks and of omar al-mukhtar in 1984 the third series was released
that featured updated designs and a predominantly green color throughout the entire series
in 1988 the fourth series was released and it featured updated images and landscapes from libya
in this series would be muammar gaddafi's first appearance on libya's banknotes in the
one dinar the fifth series was released in 2002 and was the most colorful and vibrant version yet
a registration device of the coat of arms was added to all banknotes
most bank notes in this series looked the same with slight changes from one
another
in 2004 the sixth series was released and included advanced security features such as windowed
security thread and holograms these banknotes were of a smaller size compared to previous series and
the fractional denominations were removed a new 20 dinar bank note was also introduced in this series
and was designated series 1 instead of 6 due to its first appearance the seventh series
was released in 2008 and would be the last appearance of gaddafi on libya's banknotes
this series introduced the new 50 dinar banknote that featured gaddafi and had various design
updates to the other denominations in 2011 after the overthrow of gaddafi
a new 10 dinar banknote was released this banknote retained a series 1 as it was the
first of its kind in 2013 the first series of bank notes since the libyan revolution were released
the one dinar bank note was redesigned to reflect the overthrow of gaddafi
with victorious protesters on the obverse and the flag of libya with doves on the reverse
in 2016 eastern libya began to print its own dinar of the denominations 20 and 50 due to shortages in
the region while western libya continued to also print their own banknotes causing both versions
to be circulating in the country at the same time both versions look alike with only minor
differences the western tripoli 20 dinar has vertical serial numbers while the eastern 20
dinar from benghazi has horizontal serial numbers the same for the 50 dinar from western tripoli
and of the eastern 50 dinar of benghazi the printing of banknotes using two different sources
further highlights the divide of libya the last banknote to be produced by libya was the polymer
1 dinar from 2018 and it was to commemorate the 8th anniversary of the libyan revolution