Islamic State reveals new gold coins in bid to break 'enslavement' of capitalism

Islamic State (Isis) revealed its new currency in a one-hour-long video entitled The Rise of the Khilafah and the Return of the Gold Dinar on Saturday, 29 August. The group said that the creation of the currency will help to break the "enslavement" of capitalism underpinned by the US dollar.

The release, which is narrated by an IS fighter with an American accent coupled with Arabic subtitles, shows plans for new gold, silver and copper coins in the group's self-proclaimed caliphate which straddles the Iraqi-Syrian border. The group calls capitalism a "Satanic system" and goes on to condemn interest payments as the "most insidious instrument" of the US economy.

The footage was released by IS' media wing Al-Hayat, and comes after the group announced it had plans to mint a new currency last November. The new currency will free members of IS' caliphate from the "tyrannical monetary system that was imposed on the Muslims and was a reason for their enslavement and impoverishment, and the wasting the fortunes of the Ummah [the community of Muslims worldwide], making it easy prey in the hands of the Jews and Crusaders," the group said in a statement, according to a translation by jihadi-monitoring company SITE Intelligence.

The group is making moves to pay those within the caliphate with its own currency as its fighters are still paid in US dollars. The group says that one new dinar coin will be 21-carats, weigh 4.25 grams and be worth the equivalent of $139, as it will be made out of gold.

"One state, built on faith, rises to face this evil head-on, initiating a countdown to bring about the end of the petro-dollar system and the destruction of America itself," the narrator says. "That trigger has become their greatest fear."

The narrator also says that the new currency will bring down "the capitalist financial system of enslavement, underpinned by a piece of paper called the Federal Reserve dollar note". The group does not outline how the new currency will be circulated or how it will replace other currencies within their caliphate.

As the video progresses, it shows a militant speaking to residents about the coin, who all speak positively about the new dinar, with one old man saying that having the gold coin is much better than paper money. It then shows children crowding around the militant to take a look at the new currency.

The video is peppered with the footage of combat, explosions and conflicts that have become so customary in IS propaganda material.

The release of the new currency comes just a year after the group reportedly raided Mosul bank in its offensive on Iraq's second city, looting 500 billion Iraqi dinars, which equates to $429m (£256m), to make the group one of the richest terror organisations in the world.