50 Fils - Hamad 1st type

Bahrain decimalised its currency in 1965, replacing the Gulf rupee with the dinar at a rate of ten rupees to one dinar. The fils denominations introduced then have seen remarkably little structural change across successive reigns. This issue marks the transition from Isa bin Salman, who ruled for 38 years, through the brief reign of Hamad's father Khalifa, and into Hamad's own redesignation of Bahrain from emirate to kingdom in 2002 — the constitutional shift that necessitated the new obverse type and distinguishes KM#25.1 from its predecessor.