my brother bought me Iraqi Currency (Dinar) for my Birthday and Christmas

[clarkfan1979]

My brother reconnected with a female friend from grade school about 9 months ago and they are going to get married in May 2018. She is a nice girl with a good heart. However, she is really excited about the Iraqi Dinar RV (re-evaluation) that is going to happen within the next 3-6 months (according to her).

She pretty much brain washed my brother into buying into this idea. My brother has a 4 year degree in Business Entrepreneurship. He is all about the high risk and high reward type of thing. He tried and failed a few MLM businesses over the last 5-10 years. She graduated high school. They are both 36.

However, this type of business scheme is a little bit of a stretch for my brother, but not entirely uncommon.

My brother bought me Iraqi Dinar for my birthday last June and for Christmas. He also bought it for my wife and 1 year old son. We have about 400,000 of Iraqi Dinar, which I think is about 325 US dollars. He is giving me a hard sell to buy some for myself or I could miss out on some big profits of 100 to 1, when it re-evaluates.
 
The best article I could find out about it is below.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jayadkisson/2012/07/30/you-cant-fix-stupid-the-iraqi-dinar-scam-lives/#3f398ae3150b

1) Any chance that I could politely tell my brother to stop buying me this crap?

2) Any chance that I could politely tell my brother to stop buying it for himself?

3) How do the sellers make money? Do they just give the buyer a poor exchange rate?

4) What is the best way to convert my Iraqi Dinar back into US currency?

Thank you.

[Rocketman]

Good luck getting him to change his mind...

As for converting them to US dollars, ask your bank/credit union. There is usually one bank in the area that specializes in currency. In my area (Salt Lake City) it is Zion’s Bank. Call first.

Good Luck

[Miss Piggy]

Did anybody else click this thread thinking the Iraqi Dinar might be some kind of cool foreign kitchen gadget or something else to get excited about?

That not being the case, here's my thinking, for what it's worth (which should be very little, since, as admitted above, I have zero familiarity with the topic): If there's even a small chance of the "100 to 1" valuation, why not hold onto the stuff for now, just for fun?

As for your questions:

1) Good luck with that. Forbes is well-known and as far as I know has a good reputation; could you send him that article?

2) See (1) above.

3 & 4) No effing clue. 

[marty998]

So when the Iraqis lop off a couple of zeroes off the currency, you'll basically be left with monopoly money.

The old banknotes obviously cease to be legal tender, with new ones issued in replacement.

People are still falling for Zimbabwe money scams. Looks like the scammers are expanding their repertoire...

[clarkfan1979]

Did anybody else click this thread thinking the Iraqi Dinar might be some kind of cool foreign kitchen gadget or something else to get excited about?

That not being the case, here's my thinking, for what it's worth (which should be very little, since, as admitted above, I have zero familiarity with the topic): If there's even a small chance of the "100 to 1" valuation, why not hold onto the stuff for now, just for fun?

As for your questions:

1) Good luck with that. Forbes is well-known and as far as I know has a good reputation; could you send him that article?

2) See (1) above.

3 & 4) No effing clue.

I modified the topic. Thank you for the suggestion.

[Sibley]

On a side note, don't lend them money, and don't let them know how much you have. Just in case.

[Bicycle_B]

Oh, the glorious Christmas gift of ENTERTAINMENT!   ClarkFan1979, so sorry you had to be the conduit for this pile of chuckles.  At least he is giving to you, not (so far) trying to get you to buy his wares, as so often happens in MLMs.  In my own mind, I will classify him as Kindhearted Bro until further notice.

Re your questions:
1. Of course you can tell him, but why rain on his parade?  He is not going to learn from you, only from experience, if at all.  He will, however, feel the love or disdain in your response.  Tell him you admire his bold spirit, and ask him if he's going to take you to Acapulco or Dubai when his dinars revalue.

2. See 1. 

3. I was wondering that myself.  I can only assume they sell above the exchange rate, or sell counterfeits, or sell the old notes that have been replaced by new ones when the Iraqi government lopped three zeroes off a few years ago (I read that Forbes article).  Best guess: selling the valueless old notes at the price of the new notes.  Great margins, plus they can appear to be giving zero markup.

4. Exchange it for Bitcoin!  Bwahaha, my whole response was just to make this one brief joke. 

Quiet times here, hope this offered a shred of amusement.  In all seriousness, I once had a friend whose financial schemes ranged from wild failure to just being broke on a regular basis.  The choice was to enjoy to his merry ways at the price of observing his failures, or block him off and wonder what was happening.  I chose to enjoy his merry ways.  Even more so, a relative is someone you don't want to block off unless staying connected is actively harmful.  Good luck getting rid of the bills or coins.  And having lost a relative or two in recent year, treasure your brother for who he is, even if it's not (fortunately!!) who you are.   Cheers.

[nexus]

Did anybody else click this thread thinking the Iraqi Dinar might be some kind of cool foreign kitchen gadget or something else to get excited about?

Yes, huge disappointment. :p

+1 to exchange for Bitcoin.
+1 for being supportive to Kindhearted Bro, who sincerely thinks this will lead to mega riches and wants to share that prospect with you.

Answers to 1 & 2)
Explain that although you support him, you're a much more conservative investor and would prefer index funds instead... or traditional gifts such as clothes, gift cards, gadgets (even if you don't like them/need them it would still be preferable to his MLM stuff).

[Car Jack]

How does everyone NOT know this scam.  This is older than the Nigerian prince scam.  Go convert all that junk into real money.  Tell your brother that's what you did and if he gives you any more, you'll do it again.  Your brother should sell Amway.  Way better chance of making money than with this scam.

[driftwood]

I had some left over from Iraq deployments and eventually sold it all on Ebay.

Ask your brother this... how can he explain the 100 to 1 value increase?  So you're saying an Iraqi could take his dinar and suddenly be 100x richer if he changes it to dollars (after the valuation)?  We're about to be flooded with Iraqi millionaires then.

Secondly, if it was a real 'investment', then real rich folks would be buying every single dinar they could get their hands on.

[MrThatsDifferent]

If your brother is anything like mine, tell him this is the best idea he’s ever had and you wished you thought of it. Tell him you support him 100% and you’d invest everything you have except you can’t but that he should right away. Cause if your brother is anything like mine, he’ll do the opposite of whatever you tell him and reject all of your advice.

[2Birds1Stone]

This scam has been going on for almost a decade.

I have met quite a few people over the years who have tried to get me to "buy in".

Good luck.

[Retire-Canada]

Say thank you for the gift. Turn it into USD and invest it. Leave the issue alone. You are not going to solve your brother's problem.

[EngineeringFI]

It's ironic that this is getting posted today. I was listening to NPR this morning and they had a segment on the Iraqi government's estimate on the cost to rebuild the destruction caused by ISIS. Unfortunately, no one is willing to help them finance the reconstruction effort and I imagine the Iraqi dinar will take a bigger hit when the government starts printing more money to rebuild.

Zimbabwe Dollars though...those have value. I keep a few of those notes around around my MegaCorp office just in case we have a bad quarter in terms of revenue. For some reason my bosses don't seem to derive much comfort from the fact that if we're behind I can give them 10 BILLION DOLLARS!!!1!

[Drole]

Oh this brings back memories of a nutter I knew a few years ago. I think the north Korean currency is the other one these folks also say is set to explode. 

I suppose it could be entertaining reading.

[Michael in ABQ]

I bought some when I was deployed in 2004-2005. About $200 worth (250,000 dinar). Last time I checked it's gone up in value to about $210. I suppose that's better than if I had left it in a savings account but had it been in an index fund it would have doubled or tripled since then. I can't recall what the rate of return has been but it's something like 1-2% over 12-13 years.

It was neat to pull it out and show my kids as I had a mix of various bills. That's about it though. It's just a souvenir at this point. Maybe I should sell some of it to your brother?

[JoJo]

Sell it to your brother :)

[clarkfan1979]

Thank you for the help. I will continue to support my brother with his business adventures, but not contribute any of my own money.
 
I'm going to try to exchange it within the next 2-3 days. Not all currency exchange businesses will exchange the Dinar. I'm guessing there is a higher risk of counterfeit. Hopefully my Dinar is not counterfeit.  I will find out soon.

[clarkfan1979]

I exchanged the Iraqi Dinar currency today for US dollars. An internet search today claims that $400,000 Iraqi Dinar is worth $337 US dollars. I went to the currency exchange in Denver at the Cherry Creek mall. They gave me $230 US dollars, minus a $5 fee for a total of $225. I have heard that a currency exchange will change 20%. However, this was a 33% fee.

Maybe the fee is higher because of a higher level chance of fraud? When I looked at their board of exchange rates it looks like they charged only 15% for more legitimate currencies.

[alsoknownasDean]

I exchanged the Iraqi Dinar currency today for US dollars. An internet search today claims that $400,000 Iraqi Dinar is worth $337 US dollars. I went to the currency exchange in Denver at the Cherry Creek mall. They gave me $230 US dollars, minus a $5 fee for a total of $225. I have heard that a currency exchange will change 20%. However, this was a 33% fee.

Maybe the fee is higher because of a higher level chance of fraud? When I looked at their board of exchange rates it looks like they charged only 15% for more legitimate currencies.

They'll just be profiting on the currency spread. They might sell that 400,000 dinar to someone for $400 later on. The more common currencies that'll be easier for them to on-sell (and potentially less volatile) will probably have more competitive rates. :)

I've got some Sri Lankan rupees I've been meaning to sell from when I was there last year. They're valued at 120LKR to the Australian dollar at present (based on xe.com rates), but the currency conversion place will buy them at 140LKR to the AUD. I paid about 105-110 when I bought them :)

[2Birds1Stone]

Wowza, the spread on Polish Zlote (PLN) is about .02-.03PLN per dollar, or about one cent.

33% sounds insane, so does 15%.

[HipGnosis]

The thread reminded me that I have a butter tub of Saudi Riyals from Desert Storm.
I'll have to count it and see what it's worth.