Currency converter: dirham to euro, dollar and rouble

Dirham is the official currency of the United Arab Emirates. The code for this currency according to the ISO 4217 standard is AED; its subdivision currency is called fils (there are 100 fils in 1 dirham). Currently, banknotes of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1,000 dirhams are widely-spread, as well as coins of 25, 50 fils, and 1 dirham.

Our dirham currency converter helps to quickly convert Emirati dirham into US dollars, euro or Russian roubles at the current rate. It should be noted that the dirham exchange rate shown here is not necessarily the bank’s buying or selling rate, but rather the average market rate.

When planning a trip to the UAE, you can roughly calculate the possible costs and the amount of money you need. However, keep in mind that the real exchange rate of the UAE dirham in the country’s exchange offices will differ slightly from the one given here, since the mark-up when buying or selling currency will be set by the specific bank or exchange office of your choosing.

UAE dirham history

The dirham currency has several varieties. The UAE dirham is the official currency of the United Arab Emirates; its informal abbreviations are «DH» or «Dhs». Currently, the Central Bank of the Emirates is the issuer of the UAE dirham.

The Persian Gulf rupee, issued by the Reserve Bank of India, has been in circulation in Dubai since 1959. On 21 March 1966, Qatar and Dubai signed an agreement on the creation of a collective issuing authority as well as on the issuance of a collective currency, which was supposed to replace the rupee. In June 1966, the Saudi riyal was introduced as a temporary currency. Its exchange rate for rupees was 100 to 106.5 respectively.

On 18 September 1968, the Qatar and Dubai riyal was introduced, which had an exchange rate of 100 Saudi riyals to 106.5 Qatar and Dubai riyals. This riyal also circulated in the countries of the Persian Gulf, which soon became part of the United Arab Emirates. The emirate of Abu Dhabi was the only exception and used the Bahraini dinar instead. Back then, for 1 Bahraini dinar you could get 10 rupees.

On 2 December 1971, Dubai decided to join the United Arab Emirates. After that, Qatar and Dubai terminated the agreement on the joint Currency Board activities.

In May 1973, the Qatari and Dubai riyal was withdrawn from circulation in Qatar, and replaced by the Qatari riyal at a ratio of 1:1. On 18 May 1973, the UAE dirham was introduced in Dubai and other emirates of the UAE with the same exchange rate of 1:1 to the previous currency. Only in Abu Dhabi the exchange rate of the Bahraini dinar to the UAE dirham was 0.1:1 respectively. The main colours used in the design of the UAE dirham are red-brown and beige.