In the real world, the Iraqi dinar is so hyperinflated that it's worth about what Saddam Hussein's regime is worth by now. But in the cybercollectors' world, the Iraqi currency is worth a huge surge of collectors' demand, especially given that it includes images of Saddam, according to Wired.
The magazine says demand for the dinar has swollen since the beginning of the U.S.-Iraq war, from financial institution bank note sellers to collectors' auctions. George Lindgren, a collector who sells bank notes on eBay, told the magazine he calls it the Saddam dinar bubble.
"The day I saw President Bush announce they would be sending in the troops, the bids on my dinars went ballistic," Lindgren told Wired, saying he's had over a thousand e-mails about the dinar daily since the war began. "I have literally spent almost all day bagging and tagging these little dictator notes," Lindgren said in an e-mail to the magazine.
"In one case, Lindgren said he received $71.48 for a 100 dinar note containing a picture of Saddam. On the black market, he estimated that 100 dinars would be worth around 7 cents," Wired said. "On several other recent auctions, bidders agreed to pay more than $20 for Iraqi bills that, by estimated black market rates, would be worth less than a dime.
