The long-cherished dream of Daesh to have its own gold, silver and copper-backed currency seems to be forgotten thing of the past.
The Islamist group is apparently suffering from a shortage of cash, the agency reports citing some residents escaping from Raqqa, the group’s stronghold in Syria.
It has reportedly cut salaries by half across its self-declared caliphate and has urged the residents of Raqqa to pay for "taxes" and utility fees, such as water and electricity, in black-market American dollars.
There are shortages of necessities, electricity is rationed and prices for basic commodities are spiraling out of reach.
The cause of this state of affairs are the overwhelmingly successful airstrikes undertaken by Russian forces, and the ground operations of the Syrian government troops which have considerably damaged its oil infrastructure. Combined with the dramatic drop in global prices for oil, once a key source of income, the Daesh financial system now appears to be on its last legs.
Interestingly enough, not long ago the group claimed that it would soon start minting its own currency, the golden dinar, as a means of exchange, in an effort to solidify control over areas where it had proclaimed a “caliphate.”
The prototype design was also inscribed with a message in Arabic reading “The Islamic State — A caliphate based on the doctrine of the Prophet.”
Thankfully the dream now seems to be forgotten.
