Competing Central Banks in Libya
The Guardian reports that a rival Central Bank in Libya might issue competing banknotes. This will certainly help to solve the already chaotic situation in Libya...
"A political battle between the UN-recognised Tripoli government led by Fayez Sarraj and the Tobruk-based parliament loyal to General Khalifa Haftar in the east has led to parallel splits in the country’s financial institutions, with two central banks threatening to circulate rival Libyan dinar banknotes in the country.
De La Rue, the Basingstoke-based currency printer and a long-term supplier of notes to the Libyan government in Tripoli, sent 70m dinars, worth about $50m, to the country last month and is in the process of delivering a further 1bn dinars before and during Ramadan.
A rival bank governor in the east, Ali Salim al-Hibri, once recognised as the bank governor by the IMF, claims to have printed 4bn dinars worth of banknotes with the help of the Russian state.
The two currencies would have different serial numbers, security details and watermarks, diplomats say. The danger is two central banks flooding the country with conflicting currencies that are not interchangeable in banks. They are also likely to worsen inflation. Food inflation has reached 14% a year."
Update 29 May 2016: I deleted the previous posted images. The images below are the notes issued by the rival central bank. The are slightly different from the already issued new notes: the new notes have different security features, watermarks, and serial numbers and are printed in Russia. The two central banks have apparently agreed to supervise the issue of new notes. The new notes are expected to be issued from 1 June 2016.
Update 11 July 2016: The "Russian" 50-dinars notes used in the west can be distinguished from the "British" ones used in the east because they have uniform serial numbers instead of ascending and lack the seal at the left top of the front.
British:
Russian:
The split of governments & institutions in Libya dates back to 2014. The eastern gov. was the one internationally recognized until a new controversial unity gov. was installed in Tripoli last March. The banknotes scans you published above are probably designs that have been abandoned in favor of other ones at least for the 20 LD note. For the new adopted designs of the 20 & 50 LD, as well as the very subtle differences between the versions of East & West Libya, have a look at the following links:
https://twitter.com/MeedoTheLibyan/status/735877469568434177
https://twitter.com/MeedoTheLibyan/status/735876326633185281
https://twitter.com/azeez305/status/736142175508017152