JOD - Jordanian Dinar

The Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) serves as the kingdom's monetary authority, overseeing banknote issuance, coin production, and financial regulation. Established in 1959, the CBJ assumed currency responsibilities from the Jordan Currency Board in 1964 and released its first banknote series on August 4, 1965. Jordan maintains a fixed exchange rate policy — the Dinar is pegged to the US Dollar at 0.709 JOD per $1 (approximately $1.41 per dinar). When sending money to Jordan, this peg provides senders with predictable conversion rates that rarely shift.

The Jordanian Dinar traces its roots to 1949, when the newly independent kingdom established the Jordan Currency Board in London. Initially, the Dinar replaced the Palestinian pound at parity — a one-for-one exchange. On July 1, 1950, the Dinar became Jordan's sole legal tender, with the Palestinian pound ceasing circulation by September of that year. First pegged to the British pound at 1 JOD = £1.25, the currency later transitioned to a US Dollar peg in 1995, where it has remained anchored ever since.

Jordan's banknotes function as a portable gallery of Hashemite rulers and national heritage. The current fifth issue features portraits of former kings alongside historic landmarks — the Dome of the Rock and Wadi Rum's desert valleys appear on higher denominations. Another peculiarity is that the Dinar continues circulating in the West Bank alongside the Israeli shekel, a holdover from Jordan's pre-1967 administration of the territory that persists today.

The abbreviation JD marks Jordanian Dinar transactions, though the official ISO code reads JOD. Both trace to the same linguistic ancestor: Dinar derives from the Latin denarius, the silver currency that underpinned Roman commerce for centuries. Jordan shares this etymological heritage with Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, and several other Arab states.