Saudi Arabia's smaller circulation coins were reformulated in the mid-2010s following the death of King Abdullah in January 2015 and the accession of Salman bin Abdulaziz. The recoinage was partly administrative — updating royal portraiture across the series — but also practical, as nickel-plated steel had by then largely replaced solid nickel in regional coinage to control production costs against volatile base metal prices.
The halala denomination itself dates to the decimalization of Saudi currency in 1963, set at one-hundredth of a riyal.
Saudi Arabia's smaller circulation coins were reformulated in the mid-2010s following the death of King Abdullah in January 2015 and the accession of Salman bin Abdulaziz. The recoinage was partly administrative — updating royal portraiture across the series — but also practical, as nickel-plated steel had by then largely replaced solid nickel in regional coinage to control production costs against volatile base metal prices.
The halala denomination itself dates to the decimalization of Saudi currency in 1963, set at one-hundredth of a riyal.