Da Afghanistan Bank (Central Bank of Afghanistan) is to print and distribute new banknotes to country's money circulation, bank officials said Tuesday, pointing out that the Afghan parliament has permitted the central bank to print up to 100 billion Afghanis (US$ 20 million).

According to the officials of the Central Bank, the fresh banknotes have higher security marks, to impede the possibilities of printing fake notes.

"We have printed the banknotes partly, and the rest of it is under print. However this doesn't mean that we would add the new banknotes to Afghanistan's money circulation," said Noorullah Delawari, head of the Central Bank.

The new banknotes will replace the old ones and not added on top of the current amount of money in circulation, he said.

The central bank is also planning to open a museum exposing Afghanistan's old coins and notes, as well as the country's historic banking documents, Delawari said.

The museum – which will be located inside Da Afghanistan Bank – will have coins as old as 3,500 years.

Afghani banknotes which were printed by a Russian company during Mohammad Daud Khan's era, are now printed by a British company; the new (Afs.100 billion) banknotes are said to cost an approximate amount of US$ 20 million.

Afghani banknotes are printed every five years; the notes aged faster in the past but now they last up to eight years, officials said, as people are aware of the importance of the notes.

As said by the Central Bank, there is about Afs.146 billion (approximately $2.9 billion) in the money circulation of Afghanistan.

In most of the country's provinces on borders, currencies from neighbouring countries are in circulation against which the government act to take the currencies out would raise the value of Afghani impressively leading Afghan traders to benefit more from importing goods.