1 Rial 43rd National Day

Oman's National Day commemorates the birthday of Sultan Qaboos bin Said, who seized power from his father Said bin Taimur in a palace coup in July 1970. The 43rd National Day therefore marks 43 years since that bloodless overthrow, which ended a deeply isolationist regime that had banned radios, spectacles, and foreign travel for ordinary Omanis. Qaboos transformed the country with extraordinary speed using newly developed oil revenues.

KM#173 is one of a long-running annual series; the Central Bank has issued commemorative rials for nearly every National Day since the 1970s, making this a collected sequence rather than a standalone piece.