10 Rials - Qaboos 25th National Day, Central Bank, Silver

Issued to mark the 25th National Day of Oman, which commemorates Sultan Qaboos bin Said's accession following the palace coup of July 23, 1970, in which he deposed his own father, Said bin Taimur. The elder sultan had ruled with extreme isolationism, banning most forms of modernization including schools, hospitals, and paved roads. Qaboos reversed course immediately, using oil revenues to rebuild the country from near-medieval conditions within a single generation.

The Central Bank of Oman issued a consistent run of commemorative silver rials throughout the 1990s for National Day milestones, with distribution largely through the banking system rather than general circulation.