In southern Yemen, which is primarily controlled by UAE-backed separatists and the former government backed by Saudi Arabia, ongoing printing has caused the currency's value to plummet.

However, in northern Yemen, which is primarily controlled by Ansar Allah with support from Iran, banknotes printed after 2017 are not considered legal tender.

After the union between the North (the Yemen Arab Republic) and the South (the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen) in 1990, both the northern rial and the southern dinar remained legal tender during a transitional period, with an exchange rate set at 1 dinar to 26 rials.

However, since 2010 the Central Bank of Yemen has had to intervene many times to protect the currency's value, resulting in a serious decline of foreign reserves.

For the first time in nearly a decade, Yemen's Houthi-led de facto government has announced the issuing of a newly minted 100 riyal coin, a move which has prompted outcry from the internationally recognised government and its central bank based in Aden as a “dangerous escalation.”[7]

[8][9] In 2017, the Central Bank of Yemen, now relocated in Aden, its interim capital due to the civil war, issued 500 and 1,000 rial banknotes with revised security features and different dimensions.