This is not a new coin for me by any means, I have had it years, and it was given to me by a man named Dr. Morris Martin, he was born in 1910, and traveled extensively.... he likely got this silver 1932 Faisal I - One Riyal (200 fils) coin not long after it was struck and while it was still in circulation in Iraq. His parents were British, and had been missionaries in China. When he was older he was a professor of the classics at Princeton in New Jersey, and graduated from Oxford in England, where he was originally born. Now.....I was told this, by one of his closest confidants.... but cannot verify it, I was told that he actually met Adolf Hitler during the 1930's, before the war. Well I like to think of him as having been a good friend and a great man, he is greatly missed, but seems to have lived quite the full life..... So this is a coin given to me by him that I much like. I know it has some wear.... 1932 Iraq, King Faisal I - silver One Riyal The edge lettering repeats the Arabic numerals '200' for 200 fils, the denomination, seperated by a design. Just thought I'd share and see if anyone has any similar coins to share.
I came across an identical coin (probably not identical condition) just last week. Sadly, the history of mine is lost, or rather truncated to "found in a bag of foreign coins that was part of an eBay lot". I think the coins were picked over to some degree, but whoever did the picking missed this one, a 1935-B Swiss 5 Franc, and a 2.5g, 90% silver, dime-sized coin (I forget the country and denomination). Oh, and a bit over $20 FV of Canadian coins, including four toonies. I was completely stymied by this coin, as well as some from Saudi Arabia, until I happened across the excellent World Coin Gallery. I'll try to remember to post photos this evening. Thanks for posting yours!
Here's mine: Iraq 200 Fils 1932 I bought this coin from Bob Burroughs' coin shop in Albany California in 1969 for $2.75. He was closing his store then.
Very cool coin -jeffB. Great find! Nice toning on the coin as well, very appealing Riyal.... I always liked the edge lettering and design on this coin, it's a beautiful style and design for a coin. willieboyd2: nice example, looks pretty similar to mine..... Does anyone have the mintage for this, the Iraq 1932 Riyal (200fils) - My 2004 edition of The Standard Catalogue of World Coins by Krause just has a blank spot there. and Ripley I am not certain on that, but could be.... someone else surely has some more information.
I found this page, which claims a mintage of 500,000. It looks like this Google Books page supports that figure. I saw that these have gone for $37.50 to $86 on eBay recently, which was more than I expected -- I figured they'd basically get silver value, $12 or so. I'm trying to stick to the principle of buying at bullion rates, then selling off commons and keeping the "good stuff" -- I guess this one counts as "good stuff"!
ripley this is the very same faisal that fought alongside te lawrence as he was the leader in waiting of the ancient land of mesopotamia which was later split into iraq and other gulf states. the faisal coins are quite common over here in europe and go for around 2 to 5 pounds in XF condition.
Here is my Faisal I 1932 Riyal coin, graded MS-61 by NGC. I would be very interested in buying or trading any pre-1959 Iraqi coins, as I am looking for quite a few of these. Anyone?
Dear rexesq The mintage of this coin is 500,000 pieces: http://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces27139.html Regards, Aws22
