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The history behind money
As businesses gear up for Ramadan splurges, here's a look at the story behind the notes. By Rob Arnhem

Ever wondered why a rial is called a rial and a baisa is a baisa? You'll be able to answer this and a host of other questions related to money over the ages after a visit to one of Muscat's secret treasure chest – the Central Bank of Oman's Money Museum in its imposing and elegant building in Ruwi. The currency museum opened in 1999, but really deserves more visitors.

Money's come a long way since the fabled King Croesus of Lydia, the man with the golden touch, minted the first coins. Some of you will already know that £. s. d., the abbreviations for the old British currency of pounds, shillings and pence before decimalisation, preserve the old Roman system of libri, solidi and denarii. And now you know why many Middle Eastern countries, such as Jordan and Kuwait, use dinars. The Emirati dirham, though, has an even older origin – its ancestor was the Greek drachma. But the rial is actually of Spanish origin – it was a coin minted to show the King of Spain's royal authority, and the Portuguese carried the coin into the Indian Ocean with them 500 years ago. They had forts all along the African and Arabian coasts to India and far off Taiwan, so the Spanish real became the rial. But India, just across the Arabian Sea, and with a very long history of trade and contact with Oman, used rupees, paisas and annas. So, as Arabic doesn't have a 'p', the Indian paisa became the Omani baisa.

That sought after staple of the world's currencies, the US dollar, is also indirectly connected with Oman. The first 'dollars' were actually thalers, which got their name from Joachimsthal in what's now the Czech Republic, Austria's richest silver mine. The Dutch called them daalders, and then they crossed the Atlantic and became the old familiar 'greenback.' Any hoard of silver in the souq these days will contain dozens of Maria Theresa dollars, almost all bearing the date 1780 and some looking suspiciously new. They aren't forgeries, though. They are still minted today for collectors in Vienna, but there have been several other mints between London and Bombay. It was a clear case of the original model being trusted best. The famous Maria Theresa thaler was first struck in 1741 by the imperial Austrian mint by order of the Habsburg Empress Maria Theresa (1717-1780). This thaler was universally valued for its high pure silver content all over the Middle East and as far afield as the Americas and China – a reliable standard 28g in weight and not less than 84 per cent silver. The Austrians used the thaler to pay for their addictive taste for coffee imported from the Red Sea ports of Mocha and Aden, and so the its legacy spread all over the Ottoman Empire and the wider Arab world. Another reason for its popularity was that its complex design made it difficult to counterfeit, or to 'clip' the edges, because it had a clever system of raised dots and the Empress's motto 'Justitia et Clementia’ struck around the edge by the die. Much of the silver came from the legendary mines in the Spanish American colonies of Bolivia and Mexico. In Oman, the Maria Theresa dollar was popularly known as abu reesh – the feathered one – from the splayed wing feathers of the double-headed Habsburg eagle. It remained legal tender right up to the 1970s, especially in Dhofar. Traditionally, Omani women wore the family's wealth and movable assets in the form of heavy silver jewellery, which featured these coins prominently. If you find one dated between 1741 and 1780, you'll be very lucky indeed, as they are exceptionally rare. The chances are that even worn old ones will not be that old, as jewellery was traditionally melted down when money was needed. They were still struck regularly in Europe until the 1950s – between 1945 and its last production run in 1958, the British Royal Mint alone struck six million of them.

In the centre of the museum is its prize possession – one of only two known in the world, and a gift from His Majesty Sultan Qaboos. It's a small rather insignificant looking silver dirham, but what a story it tells. It's the first coin to bear the name of the country 'Oman' and is dated 81AH. It was struck during the rule of Caliph Abd al Malik bin Marwan, who reigned from Baghdad from 685 to 705AD. The coin is early proof of Oman's national identity, and evidence of one of the oldest mints in Arabia. A gold dinar dated 77AH was the first coin struck in Arabia. Another rare coin is a copper one bearing the name of Sohar, where it was minted by the governor in 141AH. In 1979, a hoard of Islamic coins was found buried in a clay pot near Sinaw, and these provide important evidence of various ruling dynasties a thousand years ago.

Spanish pieces-of-eight, florins (from Florence, where they were first minted), Venetian ducats, Islamic sharafis, East India company gold mohurs dated 1819 and gold pagodas all glint through history to beckon the curious. The display cases have mirrors so that you can see the obverse of coins clearly. Many of the coins are artistic masterpieces of design and engraving. Greek and Roman coins, like the solidus, stater and antoninianus, were common too in pre-Islamic times. Alexander the Great's were a prototype of coins to come for several centuries. They generally showed the head of the ruler stamped on one side and a pagan god or hero like Zeus or Hercules, or an animal or heraldic device on the other.

Islamic coins generally provide the name of the ruler, but because of the prohibition of images, only written information, perhaps including a verse from the Qur'an or the kalima, the statement of faith. Oman fell in the ambit of the sultans of Hormuz in the 13th century, and they issued their own coins from Qalhat. After the arrival of the Portuguese in 1498 and their rivals the Dutch and English a hundred years later, European coins like ducats and later thalers circulated freely. Oman issued its own coins after 1600 – the copper fal, the dirham and the mahmudi. Two hundred years later the British East India Company and Zanzibari currency were commonly used in Oman. Towards the end of the 19th century Sultan Faisal bin Turki, the present Sultan's great-grandfather, minted the baisa and ghazi, Oman's first modern coins. And his son, Sultan Sayyid Taimur bin Faisal just had his initials added, thus creating the very rare black baisa. The design and names of these coins reflect their use in the triangle of trade and connections between Oman and the Gulf, India and Zanzibar. Between 1945 and 1970, the official currency of the Gulf countries was the Gulf rupee, but the old Maria Theresa dollar and other coins were accepted too. Sultan Barghash of Zanzibar introduced the first modern currency in 1882, and in 1942 Sultan Said bin Taimur struck a coin issued in Dhofar. The well-known silver half rial, popularly called the saidi after him, appeared in 1948.

Two 15 rial gold coins were struck in 1971 to mark the accession of HM Sultan Qaboos bin Said. A set of five was issued, but the 100 baisa coin is quite a find these days. Since then, more paper notes have been printed. There have been five issues of banknotes that bear the name of Oman. All of them are on display. And there's an accompanying explanation of the whole process from design to circulation, for you to study.

The most recent series of banknotes here is a state-of-the-art production. To celebrate the 35th National Day in 2005, a colourful special one rial note was issued instead of the more usual commemorative medal. But banknotes are relatively new in the West. The Chinese were using paper money made from mulberry bark a thousand years before the idea occurred to anyone else.

Your reward at the museum will be a fascinating insight into money's long history, as well as Oman's, and you might also spend more than time there, as tempting sets of commemorative coins and medals are for sale too. For numismatic buffs, a comprehensive coffee table book, The History of Currency in the Sultanate of Oman, published by the Central Bank in 1990, is also available for RO15 from Family Bookshop.