Exchanging a cancelled currency

A question about whether a cancelled currency takes the rules of a current one regarding immediate exchange and equality, in which Jordan's General Iftaa Department answered that once a currency is cancelled it loses its status as money and becomes a commodity, so it may be sold for current currency at an unequal rate. ¹

The questioner asked whether a cancelled banknote currency takes the same rules as a current one regarding immediate mutual delivery and equality when the two currencies are exchanged. ¹

The Department answered that paper currencies not made of gold or silver are not money in themselves but because they represent compulsory purchasing power, so the rules of gold and silver on usury, zakat and the like apply to them while they are in circulation; once dealing in them stops, they lose their status as money and become an ordinary commodity. ¹ It quoted Imam al-Haramayn al-Juwayni in Nihayat al-Matlab that when copper coins fall out of use and the ruler's crier forbids dealing in them, they turn into goods without disagreement. ¹ It said a cancelled currency is then like any goods to which the rules of currency exchange do not apply, so it may be sold for current currency at an unequal rate, on whatever the two parties agree. ¹ It concluded that a cancelled currency is a commodity like any other goods, to which the rules of usury, zakat and currency exchange do not apply. ¹

Jordan's General Iftaa Department published this fatwa on aliftaa.jo as no. 3974, dated 26 May 2025. ¹ The museum records this text as a historical document attributed to the body or scholar that issued it; it issues no ruling of its own.