This Day in History (1972): New Saudi Arabian Coins

From the Dec. 27, 1972 edition of the Sun and Flare

Four new Saudi Arabian coins went into circulation last week -- 5, 10, 25, and 50 halalah pieces, equivalent to 1, 2, 5, and 10 qirsh. (there are 100 halalah to each Saudi Arabian riyal.)

Like the 1, 2, and 4 qirsh pieces they will eventually replace, the new Saudi Arabian coins bear the crossed sword and palm symbol on one side, and their denomination on the other.

However, they differ from the older coins in that the denomination is given in both Arabic and Western numbers. The coins are made of copper and nickel and are slightly smaller in size than their equivalent qirsh pieces, which, over a period of time, will be withdrawn from circulation.

At present, however, these 1, 2, and 4 qirsh pieces will continue as legal currency.

Also on this date

2007 — Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto is assassinated

2004 — Radiation from an explosion on the magnetar SGR 1806-20 reaches Earth, become the brightest extrasolar event witnessed in the history of man

1989 — The Romanian Revolution concludes as the last street confrontations and stray shootings abruptly end in Bucharest

1978 — Span becomes a democracy after 40 years of fascist dictatorship

1966 — The Cave of Swallows, the largest in known cave in the world, is discovered in San Luis Potosi, Mexico

1945 — The International Monetary Fund is created with the signing of an agreement by 29 nations

1939 — A massive earthquake in eastern Turkey kills nearly 33,000 people

1932 — Radio City Music Hall opens in New York

1922 — The Hosho from Japan becomes the first aircraft carrier to be commissioned

1845 — Journalist John L. O'Sullivan, who coined the phrase "manifest destiny," editorializes in his New York Morning News that the U.S. has the right to claim the Oregon Country

1571 — Johannes Kepler, German mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer is born in Weil der Stadt

537 — The second Hagia Sophia in Constantinople is consecrated