10 Fils - Faisal II

Struck in 1943, this issue was produced while Iraq was under effective British military occupation following the Anglo-Iraqi War of 1941, in which Rashid Ali al-Gaylani's pro-Axis government was ousted in a matter of weeks. Faisal II was six years old at the time, his uncle Prince Abd al-Ilah serving as regent. The coinage continued under the young king's name regardless — a deliberate signal of dynastic continuity at a moment when the throne's legitimacy had been tested and the country's independence was largely nominal.