Islamic State announced last week that it planned to start minting its own coin, including a gold dinar, a silver dirham, and a copper "feloos" for small change.
The jihadist group and its leader, the self-proclaimed "caliph" Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, almost certainly consider the establishment of a mint an essential building block for their larger goal of restoring an ancient Islamic empire.
The roots of the project go back to the dawn of Islam as a religion. Under the leadership of the prophet Mohammed, Islam became the de facto faith of most of what is now Saudi Arabia. After his death, in 632, a succession of powerful political and military leaders known as caliphs conquered much of the Middle East and parts of North Africa. The first was Abu Bakr, whose name the leader of Islamic State has adopted.