Saudi Arabia's first true national banknote series — the Haj pilgrim receipts of the early 1950s aside — this note was issued under the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, established in 1952 partly at American prompting to manage the kingdom's oil revenues without establishing a conventional interest-bearing central bank, a compromise with religious objections that shaped the agency's mandate for decades. De La Rue produced the series to a high standard, as expected, but the real constraint was political: any imagery had to clear strict Islamic guidelines, which pushed the design toward architectural and geometric solutions unusual for the period.
The Pick 7 series is frequently found with horizontal fold lines consistent with storage in traditional Saudi dress — field wear, essentially.
Saudi Arabia's first true national banknote series — the Haj pilgrim receipts of the early 1950s aside — this note was issued under the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, established in 1952 partly at American prompting to manage the kingdom's oil revenues without establishing a conventional interest-bearing central bank, a compromise with religious objections that shaped the agency's mandate for decades. De La Rue produced the series to a high standard, as expected, but the real constraint was political: any imagery had to clear strict Islamic guidelines, which pushed the design toward architectural and geometric solutions unusual for the period.
The Pick 7 series is frequently found with horizontal fold lines consistent with storage in traditional Saudi dress — field wear, essentially.