A new 1-dinar bank note that is the first in Jordan’s fifth currency series was issued by the country’s central bank on Dec. 26, according to bank officials.

The issue will eventually be followed by 5-dinar, 10-dinar, 20-dinar, and 50-dinar notes. They will gradually enter circulation and be interchangeable with older notes. Exact planned dates of issue were not revealed. The dinar is pegged to the U.S. dollar at a fixed exchange rate that fixes each dinar at $1.41 in U.S. currency.

The new series, the first since the fourth series was released 20 years ago, includes what the Central Bank of Jordan describes as upgraded, durable and the most cutting-edge security features available to the bank note printing industry. The bank says that when the note is lifted under a light, a watermark of Sherif Hussein Bin Ali and the denomination 1 are visible, and when tilted, a 3-D security thread and a holographic patch with a 3-D seven-pointed star are seen. The note also has raised ink and raised lines that can be felt by users, and a holographic security thread. Specific areas on each side glow under ultraviolet light.

As on the note issued in 2003, a portrait of Sherif Hussein Bin Ali (1853 to 1931) is the main feature on the face. He was the last Hashemite sherif to rule Mecca, Medina (as emir) and Hejaz (as king). A Jordanian government website describes him as best known for leading the Great Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire in June 1916. His goal, never fulfilled, was to establish a unified Arab kingdom stretching from Syria to Yemen that, while upholding the tenets of Islam, would include and protect ethnic religious minorities, an aspiration denied by the British and French colonial powers.

He had four sons: Ali, Abdullah, Faisal, and Zeid. Ali followed his father as king of Hejaz in 1924 but abdicated the next year. Abdullah became king of Transjordan (now Jordan), and Faisal became king of Iraq as Faisal I.

The back has Jordan’s national bird, the Sinai rosefinch, instead of the soldiers in the Great Arab Revolt astride camels that are on the notes being replaced.

It is expected that the other notes will feature the same Hashemite kings that appear on the fourth issue. Their designs are expected to be revealed in the coming weeks.

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