1 Rial - Qaboos 26th National Day, Sultanah, Gold

Issued to mark the 26th National Day of the Sultanate of Oman — November 18, 1996 — this piece commemorates Sultan Qaboos bin Said's consolidation of a modern state from what had been, at his accession in 1970, one of the most isolated and underdeveloped countries in the Arabian Peninsula. Qaboos deposed his own father, Said bin Taimur, in a palace coup backed by British interests, and spent the following decades methodically building infrastructure, education systems, and a functioning bureaucracy largely from oil revenues.

The .916 fineness places this squarely in 22-karat territory, the traditional standard for Gulf commemorative gold. Fr#21 confirms it within Friedberg's gold coin reference.