Bahrain's fils coinage underwent a quiet but deliberate revision in the mid-2000s as the Central Bank moved to address vending machine compatibility and currency sorting issues that had plagued the earlier steel-core issues. The shift to a non-magnetic brass composition resolved most of those problems without requiring a redesign — hence the near-identical appearance between the two types, distinguishable in hand only by a magnet.
Bahrain's fils coinage underwent a quiet but deliberate revision in the mid-2000s as the Central Bank moved to address vending machine compatibility and currency sorting issues that had plagued the earlier steel-core issues. The shift to a non-magnetic brass composition resolved most of those problems without requiring a redesign — hence the near-identical appearance between the two types, distinguishable in hand only by a magnet.