1 Rial FAO

Issued as part of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization's coin program, which ran through the 1970s and persuaded dozens of developing-nation central banks to mint commemorative circulation pieces tied to agricultural development themes. Yemen's participation came during the period of the Yemen Arab Republic, well before unification with the People's Democratic Republic of Yemen in 1990.

The FAO program was deliberately designed to put educational messaging into everyday pockets — coins as propaganda for food security policy.