2 Dinars

Algeria's dinar coinage of the 1990s was produced against a backdrop of severe economic strain — the decade opened with the government canceling the 1992 elections after Islamist parties led the first round, triggering a civil conflict that killed tens of thousands and destabilized public institutions including the central bank. The Banque d'Algérie's shift to stainless steel for this denomination during the same period reflects chronic foreign currency shortages that made base metal substitution a fiscal necessity rather than a minting preference.