Chris Papatheofanous was a medical lab technologist with a prized collection of old coins from the Middle East, when she realised that owning some of Iraq’s new currency, the dinar, might be a better investment than the relics she was selling on the side.

Now, nearly three years later, Ms Papatheofanous no longer works in the medical industry and her salary has quadrupled. She deals Iraqi dinar full-time from her home in Quebec, Canada, and sells millions of them each week.