Catalog
50 Riyals
| Issuer | Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency |
|---|---|
| Year | 1960 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Riyal (1960-date) |
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| Obverse description | Vignette of the courtyard of the Prophet's Mosque (Al-Masjid an-Nabawi) at right, rendered in fine intaglio with colonnaded arcades and minaret visible. The Saudi Arabian coat of arms — crossed swords beneath a palm tree — appears in a central guilloche panel, flanked by Arabic inscriptions including the issuer name and denomination. Numeral '50' in Arabic script appears at upper left and lower right corners against a geometric underprint. |
|---|---|
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| Protection type | Watermark |
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| Comments |
Pick 14 belongs to the first series of Saudi banknotes ever issued — SAMA didn't begin circulating paper currency until 1961, replacing the earlier Saudi Arabian Currency Board notes and the silver riyal system that had been the backbone of everyday commerce. The decision to centralize monetary authority under SAMA had been formalized in 1952, but issuing a full fiduciary currency took nearly a decade to execute.
Thomas De La Rue handled the entire series, a common arrangement for newly structured Gulf monetary authorities at the time. The watermark security on these early issues is relatively simple by later standards, and genuine specimens sometimes show uneven ink distribution in the intaglio areas — a known characteristic of the first print runs, not damage.