Description

This is a remarkably scarce gold pattern issue, representing one of merely three known examples crafted by the Paris mint for evaluation by the Saudi royal household. The remaining two instances are presently housed in the Paris Mint collection. Originally conceived as a trial for the inaugural gold coinage of the newly established United Kingdom, this current offering, designated as a "Guinea," adheres precisely to the weight standard of the British Sovereign. It showcases a design nearly indistinguishable from that adopted for the official trade issues, with the denomination inscribed on the reverse without the usual diacritical marks denoting vowels.

Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud (1875–1953), known in the West as Ibn Saud, was the founder and first king of Saudi Arabia, the "third Saudi state", reigning from 23 September 1932 to his death. He had ruled parts of the kingdom as early as 1902, having previously been the emir, sultan, and king of Nejd and the king of Hejaz.

He reconquered his family's ancestral home city of Riyadh in 1902, starting three decades of conquests that made him the ruler of nearly all of central and north Arabia. He consolidated his control over the Nejd in 1922, then conquered the Hejaz in 1925. He extended his dominions into what later became the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932. As King, he presided over the discovery of petroleum in Saudi Arabia in 1938 and the beginning of large-scale oil production after World War II. He fathered many children, including 45 sons, and all of the subsequent kings of Saudi Arabia.