The P-29 series was introduced as Saudi Arabia modernized its security paper following a sustained review of counterfeiting vulnerabilities in Gulf-region currencies during the late 1990s. Thomas De La Rue had held the SAMA printing contract for decades by this point, and the 2003 issue reflects incremental rather than wholesale redesign — the security thread specification was upgraded, but the note did not yet incorporate the more advanced windowed thread technology that would appear in later Saudi issues.
SAMA functioned as both central bank and monetary authority under a single institutional roof until the Saudi Central Bank rebranding of 2020, a structural arrangement that shaped how currency policy decisions on this series were actually made and authorized.
The P-29 series was introduced as Saudi Arabia modernized its security paper following a sustained review of counterfeiting vulnerabilities in Gulf-region currencies during the late 1990s. Thomas De La Rue had held the SAMA printing contract for decades by this point, and the 2003 issue reflects incremental rather than wholesale redesign — the security thread specification was upgraded, but the note did not yet incorporate the more advanced windowed thread technology that would appear in later Saudi issues.
SAMA functioned as both central bank and monetary authority under a single institutional roof until the Saudi Central Bank rebranding of 2020, a structural arrangement that shaped how currency policy decisions on this series were actually made and authorized.