ST: I talked with several soldiers at the Mosul air base. One of them, a Sergeant Gore, asked whether I was “investing” in Iraqi dinars. I thought he was joking, but he continued with disbelief, “…don't you want to be a millionaire? We're all buying up every dinar we can find and shipping them home.”
CD: Why? What can you possibly do with an Iraqi dinar in America?
ST: Exchange it, that’s what. Right before the war last spring, the currency, which used to be 3:1 against the dollar, hit rock bottom- 3,000 dinars to a single U.S. dollar. However, since then the Iraqi currency has been steadily gaining strength. It’s now at 1,450 dinars against the dollar- a value increase over 100 percent in just twelve months.
Therefore it was easy to follow the logic of Sergeat Gore. “If the dinar climbs back to even one tenth [30 cents to the dinar] of its old worth," he said, "we will all be millionaires in say, five to ten years.” Since they can’t exchange their money downtown, the soldiers eagerly barter with the Iraqi civilians who work on the base as they pass through the front gate.