Saudi Arabia 2016 50 Riyal banknote - ٱلْمَمْلَكَة ٱلْعَرَبِيَّة ٱلسَّعُوْدِيَّة

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (K.S.A.) recognizes six different issues of its national banknotes starting in 1961. First circulated in 2016, the sixth and most recent issue eliminated the 1 riyal note and replaced it with a coin, but it otherwise retained the fifth issue denominations of 5, 10, 50, 100 and 500 riyals. The 50 riyal note, shown below introduces new security features, but otherwise keeps the cultural themes of the fifth issue intact.



Each issue appears to correspond with the reign of a new ruler and the sixth issue features the current monarch, King Salman, or King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud - with the exception of the 500 riyal note, which shows King Abdulaziz Bin Abdulrahman Al Saud or "Abdul Aziz," Saudi Arabia's founding King. King Salman took the throne in 2015 following the death of his predecessor and half-brother, King Abdullah. During his reign to date, Saudi women were granted the right to drive, the country became involved in the Yemeni Civil War and a project called "Saudi Vision 2030" began, which seeks to reduce dependency on oil revenues and increase other income sources, such as tourism, while projecting a more secular image of the country to the world. King Salman's son, Crown Prince since 2017 and heir apparent, Mohammad Bin Salman, appears to wield kingly power along with his father and the pair have implemented numerous governmental reforms. A number of controversies have also arisen, such as the mass arrest of Saudi royal family members and the death of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul. King Salman also altered the royal line of succession, removing two successive Crown Princes, presumably so Mohammad Bin Salman could hold the title. Mohammed Bin Salman will therefore become King upon his 79 year old father's abdication or death.

The banknote's front topmost text, reading right to left, "مؤسسة النقد العربي السعودي," or "muasasat al-naqd al-arabiya al-saudi," spells out "Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority" in highly ornamented calligraphic script. Directly below that, the Royal Decree for the issue of banknotes displays, almost in microtext, along with the Decree's date of issuance, "١٣٧٩/٧/١" or Hijri 1379/7/1 or 1 Rajab 1379 or approximately December 30, 1959 Gregorian. The Arabic numerical denomination, "٥٠" appears in bottom right, textured both as a security measure and for the visually-impaired. The denomination also appears in textual Arabic to the left, "خمسون ريالا" or "khamsun rialaan." Each side of the spelled-out denomination displays official signatures with titles. To the left the Governor, "لمحافظ," or "imuhafiz" and to the right, the Minister of Finance, "وزير المالية," or "wazir al-malia."

The center of the front depicts "The Dome on the Rock" or "قبة الصخرة‎" or "qubbat al-sakhra" in Jerusalem. This site holds great significance for all Abrahamic religions as the traditional location of the creation of the world and the first human, the place where Abraham sacrificed his son and, for Muslims, the site upon which the Prophet Muhammad ascended into Heaven on his "Night Journey." The building also sits on the traditional Jewish Temple Mount, the western wall of which, also known as "the wailing wall," remains sacred to Judaism.

Between the portrait of King Salman and The Dome on the Rock, a shiny stripe with latent imagery serves as an anti-counterfeit device. A silver colored circle transitions from the emblem of Saudi Arabia to the numerical denomination upon moving the bill up or down or side to side.




Another strip sits to the left of The Dome on The Rock and also transitions between the same characters, though this time colored green. The characters also move within the strip.



Another motion-activated feature sits to the bottom left of the second strip. This displays a crawling jade green iridescent pattern when moving the bill up and down. The numerical denomination appears in the feature's center.



Directly above this sits a watermark of King Salman, which also includes the emblem of Saudi Arabia and the numerical denomination.



To left and a bit lower, the date in Hijri displays, "١٤٣٨," or 1438, or 2016 Gregorian.

Brown straight horizontal lines at lower extreme left and right also include raised textures for the visually-impaired.



The banknotes's back shows Al-Aqsa Mosque, or "ٱلْمَسْجِد ٱلْأَقْصَىٰ‎" or "al-masjid al-aqsa," located very near the The Dome on The Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The Mosque is considered the third holiest site in Islam, preceded by Mecca and Medina. Mirroring the Arabic on the note's front in English, the back also includes the year 2016 under a multicolored emblem of Saudi Arabia.

The bill also features an internal security strip that, when held up to light, reads "SAMA50," an abbreviation for "Saudi Arabia Monetary Authority" with the denomination appended.



Right now, 50 Saudi Arabian Riyals equals $13.33 US. Only two bills have higher value in the sixth issue, the 100 and 500 Riyals, worth $26.66 and $133.31 respectively.

Part of "Saudi Vision 2030" aims for 70% of the country's financial transactions to become cashless. The percentage currently stands around 20%. The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority, the agency that prints the banknotes, has apparently driven and supported this goal. On top of that, measures initiated by Covid-19 have apparently highlighted the need for more digital monetary infrastructure. The goal seems aggressive, but digital money will likely greatly increase in sophistication over the next decade. Given that the country expects at least 30% of transactions to continue using tangible cash, the banknotes will likely not disappear from circulation anytime soon, though, similar to other countries on a cashless path, their role will likely diminish. One challenge of a cashless society is how to replace or compensate for the ever-present cultural and historical symbolism depicted on nearly every country's physical money. Saudi Arabia continues to pack their banknotes' designs with both, as demonstrated on the sixth issue 50 Riyal note.

 

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The Dome of the Rock is one of the few places (and may be the only one) that appears on banknotes from countries outside of where it is located. It has also appeared in notes from Iran.