100 Fils

The Bahrain Currency Board was established in 1964 specifically to replace the Gulf rupee, which had circulated across the Persian Gulf states as an adjunct of the Indian monetary system. India's foreign exchange crisis in the early 1960s — and the rupee's subsequent devaluation risk — pushed several Gulf administrations toward independent currencies, and Bahrain moved first among them.

Thomas De La Rue produced the entire inaugural series, and P#1 sits at the lowest denomination of that founding issue. The 100 Fils represented one tenth of a dinar, a decimal structure that held through successive issuing authorities.