1 Pound Discovery of Petroleum

Egypt's 1986 petroleum commemorative marks the country's development of its Gulf of Suez oil fields, which by the mid-1980s had made Egypt a significant regional producer — a position that directly funded Mubarak-era infrastructure spending. The fields at Ras Gharib and the broader Gulf of Suez concessions were central to Egypt's export revenue at a time when the economy was under considerable IMF pressure.

Struck in .875 fine gold, this falls into a series of Egyptian commemoratives from the period that used crown-sized gold at that fineness rather than the .900 standard more common elsewhere.