10 Riyals - Saqr Dwight Eisenhower

Ras al-Khaimah was the last of the Trucial States to join the UAE, initially refusing federation in 1971 and only acceding in February 1972. In the years immediately before that merger, the emirate's ruler Saqr bin Mohammed al-Qasimi authorized a flood of collector-oriented issues — coins bearing foreign heads of state, astronauts, and international figures that would never circulate locally. The Eisenhower pairing is among the more incongruous: a Gulf sheikh's name sharing a coin with an American general-president who died the year before this piece was struck.

These issues were sold directly to the international numismatic market through European dealers, primarily as revenue generation for a cash-poor sheikhdom angling for relevance before federation absorbed it entirely.