Anxious Afghans Charge to Get Their Hands on Some New Cash

Counting money is not just business here. It is like a sport, a source of pride, close to an art form.

Witnessing an Afghan count money is as breathtaking as watching someone play a musical instrument well. One hand holds a fat block of bills while the opposing thumb bends the notes and a forefinger leaps through the stack at warp speed.

Without money-counting machines and with the highest-denomination note--10,000 afghanis--worth only 20 cents, workers at Kabul’s currency exchange spend up to nine hours a day just counting money.

A block of 10 million afghanis, worth $200, is made up of 1,000 bills. The fastest counters can rip through it in five minutes, checking the serial numbers and discarding bad notes without losing count. They can recognize rival Afghan currencies merely by the texture of the paper.

Money counters race one another, betting on who can win. Among the fastest are Jawid and Zahir, who are paid $2 a day as counters. Both go by one name.

“I don’t think there’s anyone faster than Jawid. No one tries to race him,” said money counter Izmarai Nangialai, from Haji Shir Qandahari’s money exchange at the central Shahzada money market.

“But we others are racing each other every day,” he said as he sat on two large sacks of money at the Central Bank.

But the art form might be short-lived--along with the jobs of many money counters. On Monday, the government introduced new currency to make commerce more convenient and give the Central Bank control over the money supply for the first time. The new bills, printed in Europe, are noticeably smaller than the older official currency.

Three zeros have been lopped off, so the 10,000 afghani note becomes 10. Higher-denomination notes -- up to 1,000 afghanis, worth about $20 -- will go into circulation.

The change means Afghans will no longer have to carry large bundles of money for small transactions.

Nangialai was waiting at the Central Bank to exchange his old bills for new. Each of his two sacks contained 1 billion afghanis ($20,000), weighed more than 200 pounds and had to be hauled to the bank by porters.

“I will miss this money counting,” Nangialai said. “This is something Afghan money dealers are proud of. In the money market, some people change 1 million Pakistan rupees for afghanis, and the owner of the shop can feel proud to give the customer all his money in 20 minutes.”

A team of people has to count out 82,000 notes of 10,000 afghanis to make 1 million Pakistan rupees, worth about $17,000.

“We had a lot of problems carrying money about,” said Qandahari, 40, who is one of the market’s big dealers. The largest amount he ever had to transport, in a deal for a load of flour, was 10 billion afghanis, about $200,000 at today’s exchange rate. He transported the money from Kabul, the capital, to the southern city of Kandahar during the reign of the Taliban, when security on the roads was good. But he still needed four cars and eight men to do the job.

The governor of Afghanistan’s Central Bank, Anwar-ul-Haq Ahady, said in an interview that 10% of Afghan bank notes circulating were not authorized by the Central Bank, making the money supply impossible to control.

Various people, including former President Burhanuddin Rabbani and Abdul Rashid Dostum, a warlord who is now deputy defense minister, issued bank notes in past years.

“Money was issued by so many different people, it was difficult for us to engage in meaningful monetary policy,” Ahady said.

The value of the afghani has fluctuated between 30,000 and 75,000 to the dollar since the fall of the Taliban late last year.

“It created such a degree of economic uncertainty that it was difficult for investors to make rational investment decisions based on the value of the afghani,” Ahady said. “So they used Pakistani rupees or dollars instead.

“If we did not introduce a new currency, what would happen is that foreign money would completely replace the afghani, and I don’t think that is in the interests of the country,” he said.

Afghans have until Dec. 4 to exchange their old money for new notes.

Haji Amin Jan Khosti, head of the Kabul money market, arrived at the market at 12:15 p.m. Monday waving bundles of the new money, inciting a wild crush and excited cheers from dealers. By 3 p.m., the front gates of the market had to be locked to prevent more people from crowding into the yard to get new money.

The first to get their hands on the notes spilled into the bazaar outside and were besieged by people willing to pay five times the face value of the bills just to have a piece of new money.

Qandahari, the money dealer, was sure the value of the new afghanis would hold steady or rise.

“Everyone thinks the value will go up,” he said. “The U.S. wants to help Afghanistan. They’re with us now, so the value of the afghani will go up.”