Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Riyal - Barghash
| Issuer | Zanzibar |
|---|---|
| Year | 1882 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Round |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | The entire field is occupied by a multi-line Arabic calligraphic legend in bold Naskh script, filling the coin from top to bottom without any central effigy or device. The name of Allah appears prominently at the top, followed by the full royal titulature of Sultan Barghash bin Said of Zanzibar across successive lines. Small floral ornaments separate sections of the inscription, and the whole design is enclosed within a beaded inner border running along the entire circumference. |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Log in to see details |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Reeded |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Barghash bin Said ruled Zanzibar at the height of its commercial power, when the sultanate controlled the East African clove trade and much of the interior caravan network reaching Lake Tanganyika. This coinage was struck in Birmingham by Ralph Heaton & Sons under contract — Zanzibar had no mint of its own. The 1882 date places it just three years before the Berlin Conference redrew the region's political map without consulting a single African ruler.
KM#4 is the sole riyal type issued under Barghash, and the series was short-lived; his successor's coinage was overtaken almost immediately by British Imperial currency impositions.