5 Dirhams

The UAE's early dirham series was issued in the wake of the country's 1973 currency reform, which replaced the Qatar and Dubai riyal across the newly federated emirates. By the 1982 issue, Thomas De La Rue had become the established printer for the series — a relationship that would persist across multiple denomination updates. This particular note predates the security upgrades that would arrive in the late 1980s, when metallic threads and more sophisticated watermark profiles became standard across Gulf state issues.

Pick 7 is moderately scarce in uncirculated condition; the 5 dirham denomination saw heavy transactional use in daily commerce throughout the federation.