Syria Closes the Chapter on the ‘Assad Pound.’ Can the New Currency Regain Syrians’ Trust?
Bahjat Daqdouq, a Damascus resident, told The Media Line: “We want to see real strength in the new currency, rather than the process being limited to replacing banknotes”
By Rizik Alabi / The Media Line
[DAMASCUS] As the deadline for exchanging banknotes issued during the rule of former President Bashar Assad approaches, the Central Bank of Syria says around 80% of the old currency has been exchanged since the beginning of the year.
The transition introduces a new Syrian pound, with two zeros removed from the old currency’s face value: 100 old pounds are exchanged for one new pound. The process goes beyond replacing old notes with newly issued Syrian pounds, raising broader questions about national identity, confidence in the Syrian pound, and the country’s economic future.
Currency is more than a means of daily exchange. The images and symbols printed on banknotes often reflect the identity of the state and the political era in which they were issued. Syrians therefore regard the withdrawal of notes bearing Assad’s image as a symbolic break with a chapter that has ended.
Syrian researcher Mohammad Jamal Tahan told The Media Line that placing leaders’ images on currency has historically been a way to display authority and reinforce a leader’s presence in everyday life. He said the old currency had become associated with a president whom many Syrians hold responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people during the conflict. Replacing notes bearing Assad’s portrait therefore carries symbolic importance during the country’s political transition, he explained.
Throughout its history, the Syrian currency has reflected the political changes the country has experienced. The names, images, and symbols appearing on banknotes changed as governments shifted and concepts of national identity evolved.
But a redenomination and redesign do not, by themselves, make a currency stronger. The Syrian pound’s value will continue to depend on economic stability, domestic production, and confidence in financial institutions.
Central Bank of Syria Governor Safwat Raslan told The Media Line that the deadline for exchanging the old banknotes is July 30, and that they will cease to be legal tender beginning July 31. After that date, they will no longer be legally valid for commercial transactions or the settlement of financial obligations.
Raslan said approximately 80% of the old Syrian currency had been exchanged since the process began at the start of the year, leaving about one-fifth outside official exchange channels.
He said the formal withdrawal period would begin on July 31 and remain open for five years. Applications will be handled exclusively at the Central Bank’s headquarters in Damascus, the only authorized location for receiving withdrawal requests.
Under the announced procedures, each application must include at least 100 banknotes, regardless of denomination. Requests involving fewer than 100 notes will not be accepted.
Following inspection and approval, the corresponding value will be transferred in newly issued Syrian pounds to a bank account designated by the applicant.
Raslan said the withdrawal process would not be subject to commissions, fees, taxes, or other charges. He urged Syrians to rely only on official channels for information and to avoid rumors and unofficial sources.
The decision means that old notes will no longer be usable in markets beginning July 31. Their holders will, however, retain the right to recover their value from the Central Bank during the following five years, subject to the stated conditions.
Limiting the process to Damascus and requiring a minimum of 100 banknotes could create difficulties for people with small amounts of cash and residents of distant provinces.
In Damascus markets, reactions have been mixed. Some people see the new Syrian pound as the beginning of a new era, while others say changing the currency will have little effect unless it is accompanied by higher incomes and greater price and exchange-rate stability.
Bahjat Daqdouq, a Damascus resident, told The Media Line that replacing the currency had become unavoidable because of the weakness of the old pound and the political symbols printed on it.
“We want to see real strength in the new currency, rather than the process being limited to replacing banknotes,” he said. “So far, the exchange rate has not changed. One US dollar is still worth around 13,000 [old] Syrian pounds, which is an extremely high figure.”
The new notes are issued in denominations ranging from 10 to 500 pounds, reducing the number of bills needed for many everyday purchases without, by itself, changing purchasing power. Abu Hassan al-Kuwa, who owns a grocery store in Damascus, told The Media Line that the new currency had made payments easier. “In the past, shoppers had to carry large quantities of banknotes to buy their basic needs,” he said. “Today, they can replace them with a much smaller bundle. That has had a positive psychological effect on both buyers and sellers.”
Economists say replacing banknotes could help regulate the money supply, combat counterfeiting, and bring some cash circulating outside the banking sector back into official channels.
Abdel Azim al-Maghribel, an economist, told The Media Line that the pound’s value is determined not by its design or the symbols printed on it, but by confidence in the economy and the state’s ability to control spending, stimulate production, and attract investment.
“The new currency can be part of an economic reform process, but it cannot substitute for reform,” he said. “Stabilizing the pound requires a clear monetary policy, fiscal discipline, increased production and exports, and the reconstruction of the banking sector.”
Experiences in Iraq, Turkey, and West Germany show that replacing a currency can help close a political chapter or reorganize a monetary system. In each case, however, success was linked to wider reforms involving inflation control, exchange-rate management, and the rebuilding of economic institutions.
In Syria, the outcome will be judged by the stability of prices and the exchange rate, the amount of money entering the banking system, public acceptance of the new notes, and whether Syrians regain enough confidence in the pound to use it as a store of value rather than merely a means of daily payment.
As the symbols of the previous era disappear from Syria’s banknotes, the more important question is what follows. The new currency may help the country present a different image of the state, but restoring the pound’s value will depend on the economy’s ability to achieve stability and growth.
Currency can be printed. Trust cannot.
Brought to you by www.srnnews.com
