As Islamic State (ISIS) sought to dominate large parts of Syria and Iraq, it used a subtle weapon to go with the car bombs and suicide attacks: money.
The self-declared caliphate aimed to unify the world under a militant interpretation of Islam. It created a highly efficient, hyper-violent society inside Iraq and Syria, coupled with an economic experiment – what I call “ISIS-coin.”
Consisting of 10 coins ranging in value from nearly a thousand dollars to pennies, ISIS sought to replace U.S., Iraqi and Syrian banknotes with purpose-built coins backed by the gold, silver and copper standard.
