10 Dinars - Isa Bahrain Through the Ages

Issued to mark Bahrain's long settlement history, this gold piece was struck during the reign of Isa bin Salman Al Khalifa, who had ruled since independence from Britain in 1971. The Al Khalifa dynasty itself only arrived in Bahrain in 1783, displacing Persian control — a relatively recent chapter in an island whose documented habitation runs back to the Dilmun civilization of the third millennium BC.

KM#12 is one of several denominations in a coordinated commemorative bullion program from this year. The .917 fineness follows the traditional 22-karat crown gold standard rather than the finer .999 compositions that were becoming common in national bullion issues of the early 1980s.