1/2 Dhofari Rial - Said

Dhofar operated as a semi-autonomous sultanate under Said bin Taimur, who consolidated personal control over the region's finances with near-total exclusivity. This gold issue was produced for Dhofar specifically — not for the broader Muscat and Oman sultanate — reflecting the deliberate administrative separation Said maintained between his coastal inheritance and the interior province he governed with exceptional austerity. Foreign currency dominated actual commerce; these gold pieces functioned closer to prestige instruments than circulating money.

The KM#29a designation separates this from related silver-composition strikings of the same type, with the .917 fineness consistent with British sovereign-adjacent gold standards then common across Gulf-adjacent territories.