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Afghanistan Money in History
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The first Afghani was introduced in 1925, replacing the Afghan rupee. In addition to being subdivided into 100 pul, 20 Afghani were equal to the amani. The rate of conversion from the rupee is sometimes quoted as 1 Afghani = 1.1 rupee, based on the silver contents of the last rupee coins and the first Afghani coins. The Afghani initially contained 9 grams of silver.
In 1936, the Afghani was pegged at 4 Afghani = 1 Indian rupee.
Prior to the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, warlords, political parties, foreign powers and forgers each made their own Afghani banknotes, with no regard to standardization or honoring serial numbers. In December 1996, shortly after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan's institutions, Ehsanullah Ehsan, the chairman of the Taliban's Central Bank, declared most Afghani notes in circulation to be worthless (approximately 100 trillion Afghani) and cancelled the contract with the Russian firm that had been printing the currency since 1992. Ehsan accused the firm of sending new shipments of Afghani notes to ousted president Burhanuddin Rabbani in northern Takhar province. The exchange rate at the time of Ehsan's announcement was 21,000 Afghani to the U.S. dollar The Northern Alliance then had banknotes produced in Russia which were sold on the markets of Kabul at half their value.In April, 2000, the Afghani traded at 6400 AFA per USD. By 2002, the Afghani was valued at 43,000 AFA per USD.
Coins
In 1925, bronze and brass 2, 5 and 10 pul, billion 20 pul, silver ½ and 1 Afghani, and gold ½ and 1 amani coins were introduced, followed by silver 2½ Afghani and gold 2½ amani in 1926. In 1930, bronze and brass 1 and 25 pul were added, along with bronze 3 pul and cupro-nickel 10 and 20 pul in 1937.
In 1952, aluminum 25 pul and nickel-clad-steel 50 pul were introduced, followed by aluminum 2 and 5 Afghani in 1958 and nickel-clad-steel 1, 2 and 5 Afghani in 1963. In 1973, the Republic of Afghanistan issued brass-clad-steel 25 pul, copper-clad-steel 50 pul and cupro-nickel-clad-steel 5 Afghani coins. These were followed, between 1978 and 1980, by issues of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan consisting of aluminum-bronze 25 and 50 pul and cupro-nickel 1, 2 and 5 Afghani.
Banknotes
Between 1925 and 1928, Treasury notes were introduced in denominations of 5, 10 and 50 Afghani. In 1936, 2, 20 and 100 Afghani notes were added. The Bank of Afghanistan took over paper money production in 1939, issuing notes for 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 500 and 1000 Afghani. The 2 and 5 Afghani notes were replaced by coins in 1958. In 1993, 5000 and 10,000 Afghani notes were introduced.
Origin of the name
The first part of the name, "Afghan", is, at least since the 16th century AD, the Persian alternative name for the Pashtuns who are the founders and the largest ethnic group of the country. According to W. K. Frazier Tyler, M. C. Gillet and several other scholars "the word Afghan first appears in history in the udud al-Alam in 982 AD." Al-Biruni referred to Afghans as various tribes living on the western frontier mountains of the Indus River, which would be the Sulaiman Mountains.
The famous Moroccan traveling scholar, Ibn Battuta, visiting Kabul in 1333 writes:
We travelled on to Kabul, formerly a vast town, the site of which is now occupied by a village inhabited by a tribe of Persians called Afghans. They hold mountains and defiles and possess considerable strength, and are mostly highwaymen. Their principle mountain is called Kuh Sulayman.
However, it is unknown whether these historical Afghans were identical with the Pashtuns.Summarizing the available information, the Encyclopædia Iranica states:
From a more limited, ethnological point of view, "Afghan" is the term by which the Persian-speakers of Afghanistan (and the non-Pašto-speaking ethnic groups generally) designate the Paštun. The equation [of] Afghan [and] Paštun has been propagated all the more, both in and beyond Afghanistan, because the Paštun tribal confederation is by far the most important in the country, numerically and politically.
It further explains:
The term "Afghan" has probably designated the Paštun since ancient times. Under the form Avagana, this ethnic group is first mentioned by the Indian astronomer Varaha Mihira in the beginning of the 6th century CE in his Brihat-samhita.
By the 17th century AD, it seems that some Pashtuns themselves were using the term as an ethnonym - a fact that is supported by traditional Pashto literature, for example, in the writings of the 17th-century Pashto poet Khushal Khan Khattak:
Pull out your sword and slay any one, that says Pashtun and Afghan are not one! Arabs know this and so do Romans: Afghans are Pashtuns, Pashtuns are Afghans!
The last part of the name, -stan is an ancient Iranian languages suffix for "place", prominent in many languages of the region.
The name "Afghanistan", meaning the "Land of Afghans", is described by 16th century Persian scholar Firishta and Mughal Emperor Babur in his memoirs, referring to the territories south of Kabul that were inhabited by Pashtuns (called "Afghans" by Babur).
Until the 19th century the name was only used for the traditional lands of the Pashtuns, while the kingdom as a whole was known as the Kingdom of Kabul, as mentioned by the British statesman and historian Mountstuart Elphinstone. Other parts of the country were at certain periods recognized as independent kingdoms, such as the Kingdom of Balkh in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.
With the expansion and centralization of the country, Afghan authorities adopted and extended the name "Afghanistan" to the entire kingdom, after its English translation had already appeared in various treaties between the British Raj and Qajarid Persia, referring to the lands subject to the Pashtun Barakzai Dynasty of Kabul. "Afghanistan" as the name for the entire kingdom was mentioned in 1857 by Friedrich Engels. It became the official internationally recognized name in 1919 after the Treaty of Rawalpindi was signed to regain full independence over its foreign policy from the British, and was confirmed as such in the nation's 1923 constitution.
