Michael - Coins & Currency of the Middle East

A DESCRIPTIVE GUIDE TO POCKET COLLECTIBLES

COINS &
CURRENCY

OF THE MIDDLE EAST

Edited by
Tom Michael &
George S. Cuhaj

2006 KP Books
Published by

700 East State Street Iola, WI 54990-0001
715-445-2214 888-457-2873

Our toll-free number to place an order or obtain
a free catalog is (800) 258-0929.

All rights reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a critical article or review to be printed in a magazine or newspaper, or electronically transmitted on radio, television, or the Internet.

Library of Congress Catalog Number: 2005924833

ISBN: 0-89689-229-8
eISBN: 978-1-4402-2519-2

Designed by Kara Grundman
Edited by Tom Michael and George S. Cuhaj

Printed in the United States of America

C ONTENTS

I NTRODUCTION

Welcome to our presentation of Coins & Currency of the Middle East! In these pages you will find coverage of modern coins and banknotes dating from the Iranian Hostage Crisis to the current War in Iraq, along with various items of related ephemera from this region and time frame. We have tried to keep the book focused and concise to allow the reader to quickly locate an item in the text or images and in short order, learn a bit about what they have.

Some of you may have brought back keepsakes from your overseas service in Middle East nations. Others may have retained pocket change or trinkets from vacation and business travel to the region. Many of you may simply have friends, relatives, sons and daughters, serving overseas and have developed a curiosity for the objects of daily life, which seem so foreign to those of our own country.

Whatever may bring you to this book we hope that its full color illustrations, concise descriptions, lively format and broad scope will satisfy your needs.

For simplicities sake we have grouped our chapters into major sections. The first section covers items of commerce. Here you will find listings and pictures of Coins, Paper Money, and Military tokens, commonly known as Pogs. The second section deals with service related items, centering on Military Medals and Challenge Coins. Also presented in this section is a brief listing of Commemorative Medals and tokens linked to the Middle East region. The third section covers paper items, with chapters on Books, Comic Books and Propaganda leaflets. Finally we have included a Memorabilia section which offers a wide array of items brought home by tourists and military personnel, as well as items found back in the good old U.S.A. which pertain to our involvement in the Middle East over the past 25 years or so.

U. S. ARMY PHOTO BY SPC BLAIR LARSON

Once you've had a chance to peruse the body of the book, you may find yourself wanting to expand your scope of interest in this field. To assist the reader in this task we offer several appendices aimed at furthering your knowledge in the Middle East areas of geography, conflict history, numeral systems and dating systems. We have also complied a brief list of web sites, which may prove useful for additional study, identification and value assessment of Middle East items

In the case of coins and bank notes, you may also want to reference one of our larger Standard Catalogs for additional detailed information. We offer a full line of Standard Catalogs covering all aspects of coins and banknotes from 1600 to present.

If you are thinking of expanding your accumulation into a collection, or are considering disposing of unwanted items you may now posses, we highly recommend you get familiar with the Ebay Auction web site. There you will find many Middle East items being sold every day in all of the categories and topical areas encompassed in the chapters of this book.

Whatever your direction, we hope this book proves to be entertaining, enlightening and above all, useful for your needs.

Best,
Tom Michael and George Cuhaj

C ONTRIBUTOR L ISTING

A special Thanks is extended to the following individuals who offered their assistance most graciously during the creation of this volume.

John Adams-Graf

Colin R. Bruce II

Jimmy Cady

Kenneth Douglas

Brent Frankenhoff

Herbert Fiedman

Steve Firebaugh

Raul Gonzalez

Ross Hansen

Armen Hovsepian

Chet Krause

Frank McCarville

Mary McCarville

Kevin Michalowski

John Jackson Miller

N. Douglas Nicol

Sue Vater Olsen

Joseph Petrosius

Mark Rhea

Ellen Robinson

Shelley Robinson

Don Smith

Daniel Springer

Shelley Stockard

Addison Tower

Bobby Wierzba

Jennie Wierzba

Chris Williams

COMMERCE

C OINS

The coins of many Middle East nations have a character all their own. The differences in language and calendar are immediately evident and set these coins apart from what most Americans are used to handling. These differences can provide an air of mystery and a distinct challenge for the military personnel serving in the Middle East. These comparative differences are often all that is needed to start a person along the path to coin collecting.

We hope this book will be both entertaining for the reader and helpful for the beginning collector of coins from this region. We have made every effort to offer a wide array of large color photographs along with succinct descriptions and a range of values, to give the reader an opportunity to identify coins they may have brought home and get some idea of their nature and value.

The coins in this section are first organized by country, then by series or date and finally by denomination or face value. Dates are given as they are read on the coin. If the coin is dual dated, both dates are given. If there are several dates in use for a particular type of coin, a date range will be given with first and last known dates separated by a dash.

Coin descriptions have been kept purposefully brief for ease of use. A description of the obverse or front of the coin is presented first, a description of the reverse or back follows. The two are simply separated by a slash mark.

Denominations or face values are presented as they read on the coin. To assist the reader in translating dates and denominations we have included a numeral chart in the appendix.

Values are presented for worn or circulated and new or uncirculated states of preservation. The term circulated, means that a coin has been used in commerce. It will have wear resulting from this normal use and handling. The term uncirculated refers to a coin, which has never been used in trade. Uncirculated coins show no wear what so ever and appear to be brand new, just as when they were issued.