British pound to Emirati dirham exchange rates

The name for the Emirati dirham dates all the way back to the ancient Greek word drachmae meaning ‘handful’, linking back to the old Greek currency of drachma. Back then, the Byzantine Empire spoke Greek, and trade with Arabia meant that the Greek drachma coins were in use all over the lands that are now the United Arab Emirates. These coins eventually became the Ottoman dirham across the Ottoman Empire and Persian states in the 7th century.

On May 19, 1973, the United Arab Emirates dirham was introduced, replacing the previous Qatar and Dubai riyal at par. The Qatar and Dubai riyal had been the currency across the UAE since 1966, except in Abu Dhabi which used the Bahraini dinar, with the United Arab Emirates dirham replacing it at a rate of one dirham to 0.1 dinar. Before 1966, all of the UAE used the Gulf rupee.

A look back at British pound to Emirati dirham rates

On January 28, 1978, the dirham was officially pegged to the International Monetary Fund’s special drawing rights. Known as SDRs, special drawing rights base their value on a basket of key international currencies. In actual practice, the Emirati dirham is pegged to the US dollar.

Since November 1997, the dirham has been pegged to the US dollar at a rate of 3.6725 dirhams to one dollar or 0.272294 dollars to one dirham and has remained pegged ever since.