Jordan's half-dinar denomination was introduced in the 1990s as part of a broader recoinage programme tied to the kingdom's managed exchange rate policy, which has pegged the dinar to the US dollar since 1995 at a rate of 0.708 dinars — one of the most rigidly maintained pegs in the Arab world. The brass composition replaced earlier bimetallic experiments as a cost-reduction measure following the severe debt crisis Jordan entered in the late 1980s, when the dinar lost nearly half its value before IMF intervention stabilised the currency.
Jordan's half-dinar denomination was introduced in the 1990s as part of a broader recoinage programme tied to the kingdom's managed exchange rate policy, which has pegged the dinar to the US dollar since 1995 at a rate of 0.708 dinars — one of the most rigidly maintained pegs in the Arab world. The brass composition replaced earlier bimetallic experiments as a cost-reduction measure following the severe debt crisis Jordan entered in the late 1980s, when the dinar lost nearly half its value before IMF intervention stabilised the currency.