The Royal Mint reports striking ¼, ½ and 1 riyal coins for “Hedjaz” dated AH1348 in .830 silver (see the 1930 report, page 29). The 1928 report (page 146) reports the earlier production of ¼, ½ and 1 “majidieh” by the “Mint, Birmingham”, without giving the silver fineness. Assuming that the coins produced in 1928 were also riyal and bore the date AH1346, these two issues would correspond to the two dates of Saudi Arabia KM#10, KM#11 and KM#12 (although the AH1346 mintage figures are lower than we have), all of which we list as .917 silver, following SCWC. The question is, do the two dates have different finenesses (in which case we should split the pages) or do we have the wrong fineness for both? Can anyone shed any light on this?
Former Numista referee for banknotes from Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Saint Helena.
Agreed, but these only directly refer to the later date, not the earlier. Are we happy to change both on this basis? By the way, the missing mintages for the first date can be found in the 1927 report (I was looking for them in 1929).
Former Numista referee for banknotes from Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Saint Helena.
The problem is that the two dates currently consitute a single type for each denomination: KM#10, KM#11 and KM#12. If we change the fineness for the types to .830, would the following comment suffice?
The fineness of the 1348 dated coins produced by the Royal Mint is recorded as .830 in the Royal Mint Annual Report for 1930 (see pages 29 and 150). The coins dated 1346 were produced by The Mint, Birmingham (see the 1927 and 1928 reports) but the fineness is not recorded. The Standard Catalog of World Coins gives the composition for both dates as .917 silver.
A bit wordy but it might just invite further information as to whether or not these dates should be split.
Former Numista referee for banknotes from Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Saint Helena.
