500 Riyals

The Qatar Monetary Agency was itself a transitional institution — established in 1973 after Qatar's withdrawal from the Qatar and Dubai Currency Board, and eventually replaced by the Qatar Central Bank in 1993. This 500 Riyal note was issued during the years when Qatar was aggressively building monetary infrastructure on the back of petroleum revenues, and the high denomination reflects the practical demands of a cash economy handling very large commercial transactions.

Thomas De La Rue had printed Qatari currency since the earliest post-independence issues, and the P#12 series continued that unbroken relationship. At 500 Riyals, this was the highest denomination in the QMA's final series before the transition to central bank authority.