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STORY: Lebanon’s ‘dead’ pound coins

are getting a new life

This fashion store in Tripoli

is turning them into accessories

The 250 and 500 pound coins

were once commonly used as change

but have since plummeted in value

amid Lebanon’s economic crisis

(Nisrine Dassouki Haffar, Jewelry maker)

"It is true that the coin has no more value anymore because we can't buy anything with it anymore, but it is still very valuable to us, and we don't want it to get lost. It is a part of us, part of our lives. We don't want to throw it away; we don't want to forget it."

The owner of the store said she takes

pride in keeping the coins in use

(Rima Mawlawi El-Samad, Owner)

"This 25 Lebanese pound banknote used to be the price of a house, this is how my parents bought their house. It is sad that when we used to say ‘during the times of our parents’... now within a year, a year and a half or two years... we lost a very big financial value of our pound. So, I wanted to support it, make it into an accessory, to wear it just to stay proud of it."