Catalog
5 Arabian Pounds
| Issuer | Hejaz, Kingdom of |
|---|---|
| Year | 1924 |
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| Value | 5 Arabian Pounds |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Yellow-brown print on paper. At the top centre, a circular vignette enclosed within a crescent motif presents the fountain and Treasury set within the courtyard of the Great Mosque in Damascus, Syria. The overall design is executed in a letterpress style with Arabic inscriptions surrounding the central vignette. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Yellow-brown underprint with a multicolour vignette of the Great Coat of Arms of the Kingdom of Hejaz at centre. The armorial design incorporates the dynastic insignia of the Hashemite rulers, rendered in polychrome over the characteristic yellow-brown ground. |
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| Comments |
The Hejaz £5 is one of the rarest notes from one of the shortest-lived issuing authorities in Middle Eastern monetary history. The Kingdom of Hejaz — the western coastal strip of the Arabian Peninsula containing Mecca and Medina — issued currency independently for only a brief window before Ibn Saud's forces conquered the region in 1925, absorbing it into what would become Saudi Arabia. Pick lists only three notes for the entire series, and the £5 is the hardest to locate.
Surviving examples are exceptionally scarce, almost certainly because the issuing period was so brief and the political disruption so total.