A Tale of two Omani Coins

Recently I started examining my old collection of coins which I had collected as a schoolboy. This collection had many hastily collected coins from Islamic countries of the Middle East which I had acquired through my uncles who stayed in UAE for a while in the late seventies. In the collection I came across two similar looking coins with a common central emblem. Reading the script of the two coins I discovered the image on left had the legend 'Said-bin Taimur' (Upper line right to left) 'Sultan Muscat wa Oman' (lower line right to left); whereas the right coin had the legend 'Qaboos-bin-Said' (upper line right to left) 'Sultan Oman'.

I was highly excited as the two coins suggested a father-son relationship but one was said to rule 'Muscat & Oman' whereas the other only 'Oman'. I examined the reverse of the coins for further clues. A study of the images of the reverse sides as listed above showed the following important facts; the coin of Sultan Said-bin-Taimur was dated 1390 A.H. (After Hijri era which commenced around 622 A.D.) which translates into 1970 A.D. of the Christian calendar and Sultan Qaboos-bin-Said's coin is dated 1395 A.H. which mean 1975 A.D.

A careful study of Oman's history on Wikipedia revealed the following important facts which came out of studying the two coins; Sultan Said-bin-Taimur ruled the Sultanate of Muscat & Oman with dictatorial control over its oil-rich resources from 10 February 1932 till his overthrow in 1970 by his only son, Qaboos.

Qaboos was a trained soldier in the British Army who returned to Oman and was resisted by Said who placed him under a virtual house arrest. Qaboos overthrew Said in a palace coup in late 1970. He renamed the Sultanate as 'Sultanate of Oman' with Muscat as its capital and reformed Oman currency with Riyal Omani replacing its previous form Riyal Saidi.

This brings us to the next important information about these coins; both are valued at 10 Baisas; however in Said-bin Taimur's time the Riyal Saidi was sub-divided into 100 Baisas whereas Qaboos-bin Said sub-divided the Riyal Omani into 1000 Baisa.

Baisa is an Arabic corruption of Indian word Paisa; Arabic languages do not have the alphabet 'Pa' hence it is substituted with 'Ba'.

Before 1940, the Indian Paisa was the dominant currency prevalent in coastal regions of Muscat & Oman; hence when Omani currency was introduced, the Baisa system was conveniently used. Thus, two tiny coins in my long forgotten collection opened a chapter in history for me in the most memorable fashion. Indeed more such gems will be dug out and dwelt upon in my future posts.