UAE. 1 Dirham.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is an Arab country in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula, on the Persian Gulf. This country is a federation of seven emirates, each governed by a hereditary emir: Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain. The capital is Abu Dhabi, which is also the state's center of political, industrial, and cultural activities. The history of this country has changed a lot since 1950s, when oil was first discovered. Since then, it has become one of the economical centres of the world.

UAE's currency is the UAE dirham (AED), introduced in 1973 to replace the riyal. It's divided into 100 fils. There are coins of 1, 5, 10, 25, 50 fils, and 1 dirham.

Now we're going to talk about the 1 dirham commemorative coin  collection. It started in 1986. 1 dirham coins are made from copper-nickel. They were 28,5mm of diameter until 1989, when they it was reduced to 24mm. It seems that they are issued randomly in time (some years 7 coins, other years none).

They all have a common reverse that features the name of the country in English and Arabic, and the denomination (only in Arabic).

The obverse commemorates events related to the country. They are usually banks anniversaries, cultural events, awards, oil shipments, corporation meetings... The coins and the motifs are the following (listed by issuing year).

1) 1986 27th Chess Olympiad in Dubai
2) 1987 25th Anniversary - Offshore Oil Drilling
3) 1987 10th Anniversary - al-Ain Unniversity
4) 1991 U.A.E Soccer Team - Qualification for WC - 1990
 

 

5) 1998 Bank of Dubai 35th Anniverary
6) 1998 10th Anniversary - College of Technology
7) 1998 15th Anniversary Rashid bin Humaid Award for Culture
8) 1998 Sharjah Cultural City
9) 1999 25th Anniversary - Dubai Islamic Bank
10) 1999 25 Years - Oil Production on Abu Al Bukhoosh Oil Field
11) 1999 Islamic Personality of 1999 - Sheikh Zayed
12) 2000 25th Anniversary - General Women's Union (1975-2000)
13) 2001 25th Anniversary - Armed Forces Unification
14) 2003 50 Years of Formal Education

15) 2003 Abu Dhabi National Bank 35th Anniversary
16) 2003 40th Anniversary of Crude Oil Exports
17) 2003 WBG & IMF meeting in Dubai 2003
18) 2004 First Gulf Bank 25th Anniversary
19) 2005 Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak - Mother of the Nation
20) 2006 Dubai Police Golden Jubilee
21) 2007 U.A.E. Boy Scouts, 50th Anniversary
22) 2007 10th Anniversary of the Hamdan Bin Rashed Award for Distinguished Academic Performance
23) 2007 30th Anniversary of Zakum Development Company
24) 2007 Sharjah International Airport, 75th Anniversary

25) 2007 50th anniversary of Abu Dhabi Police
26) 2007 30th Anniversary of the First LNG Shipment
27) 2008 National Bank of Abu Dhabi, 40th Anniversary
28) 2009 Celebrating Five Years of Success - Dubai International Financial Centre
29) 2009 World Environment Day
30) 2010 I love UAE
31) 2012 50th Anniversary of the first oil shipment

• Topic: UAE related events.
• Size of the collection: 31 until now. They may issue more.
• Price: Some of them aren't easy to find, specially the first ones that may reach high prices in UNC condition. The others are "easily" found at 4-5USD/coin.
• Popularity: There are not too many at ebay, but when they are in auctions, they are usually sold.

Pictures of the coins have taken from these websites (1, 2 and 3).

Armenia. 50 Dram. Regions.

Armenia is a little euro-asiatic country of three million inhabitants. It is located between Iran and Turkey. As a curiosity, Armenia was the first nation to accept Christianism as its official religion, and Armenia has belonged to several and different countries: USSR, Byzantine empire or Persian empire.

Since 1993, Armenia's currency is the dram. Nowadays, there are coins of 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 500 dram into circulation (but they don't circulate at all, because of their low value: 1 USD is 370 Dram).

This collection consists of 11 coins that represent de eleven provinces (marzer in local language) that form Armenia.

The coins weigh 3,5 grams and are made of steel-brass. They have a common reverse, which is the same of the circulating 50 dram coin.

In the obverse, there are inscriptions in armenian (such as the name of the province). The upper says "50 Dram - Republic of Armenia", and the lower one is the name of each province. The central motif is something typical of the region that the coin represents.

Aragatsotn: Byurakan Observatory.
Ararat: Khor Virap and mount Ararat on the background.
Armavir: Sardarapat Memorial.
Gegharkunik: Sevanavank.
Kotayk: Garni Temple.
Lori: Monastery complex of Haghpat.
Shirak: Phaeton and house in Gyumri.
Syunik: Syunik Gates.
Tavush: Tavush fortress.
Vayots Dzor: Caucasian goat.
Yerevan: Statute of David of Sasoun on the background of the image of Yerevan railway Station.

To sum up.

• Topic: Armenian provinces.
• Size of the collection: 11 coins.
• Price: Today, we can see it in ebay around 10-15$.
• Popularity: It's a new collection, so we don't exactly know how collectors will consider this collection.
• Beauty: The coins are cute and a bit small. The curves make them different.

If you want the official information, you can visit the website of the Central Armenian Bank. Please remember to click in the images to see them full-sized, and make a comment if you want so suggest something.

Hello

Hello to everybody. This blog is the English version of my Spanish blog "Colecciones de monedas". From now, I'll try to translate all the posts in the other blog, and in the future, I'll make every post bilingual. Nothing more to say. Enjoy.