25 Riyals - Rashid Bertrand Russell, CuNi

Ajman, smallest of the Trucial States with a population under 5,000 at the time, issued an extraordinary range of collector coins in the years immediately before UAE federation in 1971 — many bearing subjects with no conceivable connection to the emirate. This piece honors Bertrand Russell, the British philosopher and mathematician who had died in February 1970, just months before the coin's issue. The timing was opportunistic; Ajman's ruler Sheikh Rashid bin Humaid al Nuaimi authorized dozens of such foreign-subject issues specifically for the philatelic and numismatic export market, generating hard currency rather than serving any domestic circulation purpose.