Jeddah — Old Saudi currencies will disappear from the market in five years, according to financial analyst Hussein Al-Rakib. He said the destruction of previous versions of currency notes will be carried out inside Saudi Arabia starting Monday, as soon as they are received by the central bank. Al-Rakib added that the new currency notes will be processed outside the Kingdom, most likely in Switzerland. The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) released earlier this month new designs of Saudi banknotes and coins. Speaking on the occasion, SAMA Governor Ahmed Al-Khulaifi said that the new coins and banknotes will be available at all branches of SAMA from Dec. 26. SAMA has introduced SR2 in the form of coins and also minted coins of SR1. It said the SR1 denomination will be issued into coins due to the high number of SR1 banknotes in circulation. "The number of SR1 banknotes constitutes half of the banknotes in circulation. This posed challenges and it was thus decided to gradually replace it with coins," the monetary agency said. "Circulating the coins has many positive effects on the Saudi economy because the average coin cycle is between 20 and 25 years while that of paper currency is estimated to be between 12 and 18 months, depending on the circumstances," the monetary agency added. Walid Al-Sayyal, head of the currency department at the monetary agency, said that SR2 denomination has been introduced in a coin form because harmful bacteria affected paper currency which has to be continuously replaced, as they get damaged faster than coins.
