Hejaz and Nejd AH 1348 riyal
This specimen was lot 1739 in Stephen Album sale 37 (Santa Rosa, CA, June 2020), where it did not sell. The catalog description[1] noted, "HEJAZ & NEJD: 'Abd al-'Aziz b. Sa'ud, 1926-1932, AR riyal, Makka al-Mukarrama (Mecca), AH1348, superb example, bold strike, the only example graded mint state (MS) by either NGC or PCGS, and possibly the finest known specimen, PCGS graded MS62, RRR. The only other example of this date listed on CoinArchives as uncirculated was sold in our Auction 27, Lot 1002. Both that example and this piece show some barely noticeable die breaks, one from the rim above the latter "J" of the city name "al-hijaz", the other circular, extending from the beginning of "al-hijaz" to the end of "nejd". Both examples were struck in high-relief quality, whereas most other examples were struck from dies of lower relief. My theory is that the first dies, or high-relief, lasted only a very short time, and were replaced by dies of lower relief that were more appropriate for the presses available at Makka." This crown was minted by ibn Saud, king of Nejd, while he was consolidating his conquest of Hejaz. In AH 1354, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia was proclaimed and all new coinage introduced. This type, the only crown from the region, has always been popular and expensive.
Recorded mintage: 400,000 plus proofs.
Specification: 24.10 g, 0.917 fine silver, 37 mm diameter.
Catalog reference: KM-12.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1901-2000, 47th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- [1]Album, Stephen, Joseph Lang, Paul Montz, Michael Barry and Norman Douglas Nicol, Auction 37, featuring the Gamal Amer Collection of Egyptian Coins and the Ahmed Sultan Collection of Ottoman Coins, Part II, Santa Rosa, CA: Stephen Album Rare Coins, Inc., 2020.
Link to: