Currency of Bahrain Quarter Dinar banknote 1967 Bahrain Currency Board
Obverse: The front of each note contains the name of the Currency Board in Arabic at the top centre, the crest of the Ruler of Bahrain to the right, a sailing dhow to the left and a two beached dhows in the centre. The denominational values appear in each corner. The notes are signed by Shaikh Khlifah bin Sulman al Khalifah, Chairman of the Currency Board. All text on the front of the notes is in Arabic, while all text on the back of the notes is in English. The watermark on all notes is the head of a falcon (and is located to the left of the notes), while a solid security thread runs vertically through the notes to the right of centre.
Reverse: The illustrations selected for the back of each denomination in this issue display modern and bygone images of Bahrain. The oil rig and oil refinery on the back of ¼-dinar note depict an aspect of modern Bahrain. The oil industry in Bahrain owes its beginning to a New Zealander named Frank Holmes who, after drilling for artesian water, believed there might be oil beneath Bahrain. On 2 December 1925, Holmes was granted a two-year prospecting concession. After failing to interest British companies, Holmes approached American interests with the ultimate result that Bahrain Petroleum Company Limited (BAPCO), a wholly owned subsidiary of Standard Oil, was established to exploit what oil might be found. BAPCO was assigned the prospecting concession on 1 August 1930. The first commercial oil well, immediately to the south of Awali, began to flow in 1932 and by 1935 there were sixteen wells producing oil. In 1936 a small refinery was opened on the east of Bahrain, near Sitra Island, and in the following year it was expanded to a capacity of 25,000 barrels a day. This expansion enabled it to handle more crude oil than Bahrain could produce, so a pipeline was constructed from Bahrain to Dammam, in Saudi Arabia, to allow Saudi crude to be processed in Bahrain. To export the crude, a new port facility and a three mile jetty were built on Sitra Island. Despite the abundance of oil in the Arabian Peninsula, Bahrain’s oil reserves are quite small. However, Bahrain had the good fortune to be one of the earlier recipients of oil revenues, and has used the revenues to establish other industries in Bahrain and to establish itself as a leading financial centre of the Gulf region.
Bahrain Banknotes
Bahrain Currency Board
L. 1965 Issue