Today's Edition
RAJEEV CHERIAN (DUBAI)
Along Dubai Creek, where trade once thrived with coins changing hands, the Coins Museum in Dubai’s Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood opens a window onto the history of coinage and its evolution.
The origins of coins, the significance of the inscriptions and symbols struck on their surfaces, and the ethos of societies that dealt in them are explored at this museum situated in an alley in the old Dubai city neighbourhood.
The museum features an impressive collection of more than 1,000 coins from different eras, made of gold, silver and copper. A selection of 157 coins is displayed for public viewing, while the remainder is preserved in the coins archive room, which is accessible to scholars and specialists upon request.
A guided tour of the museum takes visitors on a journey from the barter system, and the origins of coins, to the craftsmanship behind minting and their spread across regions. It traces how coins helped create “an interconnected tapestry of commerce that fostered a sense of interdependence among societies of power and control”.
It’s believed that the birth of coinage started around 630 BC, when a piece of precious metal was stamped in the ancient kingdom of Lydia, in present-day Türkiye, according to an inscription at the museum.
The Greeks later adopted the Lydian technology and named the coins “nomisma”, meaning money, which became the accepted convention. From there, coins spread across the vast Roman empire and beyond.
The collection at the museum is divided into four sections: Coins of Antiquity, Coins of Islam, Coins of the Arabian Peninsula and Coins of the United Arab Emirates.
Among the highlights is “Knife Money” from the State of Yan in China, dating from 400 BC to 220 BC. Notable for their knife-shaped appearance, these coins were minted in various shapes during the Zhou Dynasty.
The displays also shed light on the two important archaeological sites - Mleiha in Sharjah and Ed Dur in Umm Al Quwain - where silver coins influenced by Greek coinage and dating back to the 3rd century were uncovered.
Moving on, the displays take visitors through the early circulation of foreign coins in the Emirates, which highlights the region’s role as a key economic hub. Coins such as the Larin, Tawilat Al Ahsa and Marduf al-Qawasim arrived at its ports alongside European coins, including the Venetian ducat.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, the Maria Theresa Thaler was widely accepted in the Emirates, while coins from the East India Company played an important role in commercial transactions between the Emirates and the Indian subcontinent.
The end of the colonial era marked the introduction of coins exclusively used within its borders.
This was followed by the establishment of the UAE Federation in 1971 which paved the way for the introduction of the country’s official currency two years later.
On May 19, 1973, the Currency Board issued the first coins and banknotes. They included denominations of 1, 5, and 10 fils coins made of bronze, and 25 and 50 fils made of nickel-plated copper.
Since then, the UAE dirham has become a symbol of the nation’s economic development and its rise as a global economic power.
The tour concludes with an exhibit exploring the advent of digital currencies and cryptocurrencies, leaving visitors to ponder what the future may hold for money and legal tender.
