The Very Highest Quality Information...


Jordanian Coins Click here to return to Information IndexChard 24 Carat Home Page

A-Z Countries Index
A B C D E F G H I
J K L M N O P Q R
S T U V W X Y Z  

Obverse of 1981 Jordanian 60 Dinars
Obverse of 1981 Jordanian 60 Dinars

Countries
Reverse of 1981 Jordanian 60 Dinars
Reverse of 1981 Jordanian 60 Dinars

A Brief History of Jordan
The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is a landlocked Middle Eastern and predominantly Arab country bordering Israel, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Its capital is Amman.

Ancient History
The history of Jordan as a political entity only dates back as far as 1921, but the history of human civilisation there dates back much earlier. The civilisations of Babylonia, Canaan, Nabataea, Edom, Ammon, The Kingdom of Israel, Judah, Persia, Alexander the Great, Seleucia, Byzantium, the Crusader States and the Arab Caliphates have all at various times owned and occupied territory that now exists within Jordan.

Ottoman Jordan
The land in which Jordan now sits was once within the domains of the Ottoman Empire from the 16th Century until the end of World War One. For much of this period, the area was very sparsely populated as settlements declined. Many of those who continued to live there were pastoral nomads known as Bedouin Arabs, who lived (and still live) in the deserts of Jordan and elsewhere.
During the 19th century, the settled population started to revive as the result of immigration from Chechnya (escaping persecution in Imperial Russia) as well as the surrounding Arab areas.

World War One and British Promises
Discontent with Ottoman rule had increased within the Arab rule following the 1908 ‘Young Turk’ Revolution. Islamic multi-ethnic governance was becoming supplanted by one based on secular Turkish nationalism, which alienated many Arabs, as it did many other non-Turks within the Empire.
In 1916, Sayyid Hussein bin Ali, head of the Hashemite Dynasty (a dynasty claiming direct descent from the Prophet Muhammad) and Emir of Mecca, rose up in revolt against the Ottomans, with British assistance under the assurance that Britain would recognise a united Arab State. At the same time, he declared himself as King of Hejaz and Sultan of the Arabs, hoping eventually to establish a United Kingdom of all the Arab lands. He was opposed in this by the Ibn Saud clan, a rival of the Hashemite Dynasty. When the secret Sykes-Picot Agreement of 1916 was revealed by the Russian Bolsheviks in 1917, it was established that the British had no intention of creating an independent and united Arab nation, and had planned to carve the Arab world up into spheres of influence divided amongst the British, French and Russians.
The Balfour Declaration of 1917, promising an independent Jewish homeland in Palestine, also contradicted Britain’s promises to Hussein bin Ali. Nevertheless, they were persuaded by the legendary British agent, Colonel T.E. Lawrence (who personally believed passionately in the Arab cause) to continue to support the British war effort in the hopes that some sort of agreeable settlement concerning the future of the Arab world could be reached later.

Establishment of the Emirate of Transjordan
Hussein bin Ali’s son, Faisel, attempted to thwart the Sykes-Picot Agreement by setting himself up as the King of Syria in 1920, but was soon driven out by the French (the following year, he received the consolation prize of becoming King of the British-created Kingdom of Iraq). Hussein bin Ali’s other son, Abdullah was established as the Emir of the Transjordan in 1921 under British protection. Hussein bin Ali himself retained the title of King of Hejaz and also retained hope that one day the Arab world would be united under the Hashemites.
The Hashemites eventually lost their struggle with the Saudis in the Islamic heartlands surrounding Mecca and Medina, leading to the creation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. When the Wahhabi (an iconoclastic and puritanical Sunni Islamic sect) Ikhwan militia, who had assisted the Saudis in their rise to power, began to make incursions into the Transjordan, Britain established bases to deter these incursions, and King Abdul-Aziz Ibn Saud was eventually forced to crush the Ikhwan military in order to prevent the outbreak of a war between Britain/Transjordan and Saudi Arabia.

Kingdom of Jordan
Following World War II, Britain started to make plans to withdraw from Palestine and Transjordan. In 1946, the mandate over Transjordan was terminated and the Emirate was elevated to the status of Kingdom.
Upon the declaration of Israeli independence in 1948, Transjordan deployed troops to try in order to prevent the Jewish state from establishing itself. They failed to destroy the nascent Israeli state, but managed to prevent the Israelis from taking East Jerusalem and the West Bank. With both states exhausted, fighting was stopped. Although no formal peace agreement was signed between Transjordan and Israel.
In 1949, Transjordan formally annexed the West Bank, and the following year, renamed itself as the ‘Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan’.

King Hussein of Jordan
King Abdullah I was assassinated outside the Al Aqsa Mosque in 1951 by a Palestinian fanatic who feared that he was going to sign a formal peace agreement with Israel. Abdullah’s son Talal briefly succeeded him, until he abdicated the following year on the grounds of incapacity (he was a diagnosed schizophrenic), in favour of his own son Prince Hussein.
Hussein, who had been present at the assassination of his grandfather and was wounded by one of the assassin’s bullets, resolved never to sign a formal peace treaty with Israel in order to avoid a similar fate (the wisdom of this decision seemed more apparent in 1981 when Anwar of Sadat, President of Egypt, was himself gunned down by Islamists for signing a formal Peace Treaty with Israel). The Six Day War, fought by Syria, Egypt and Jordan against Israel, resulted in the loss of the West Bank to Israeli control.
The resulting flood of refugees led to Jordanian citizens finding themselves outnumbered in their own country by Palestinians, who King Hussein considered to be a security threat, despite granting them with Jordanian citizenship. By 1970, Palestinian Fedayeen militiamen were openly defying the Jordanian authorities and even calling for the overthrow or assassination of King Hussein so that they might seize control of the Kingdom and use it for their own ends. The King had had enough, and deployed the Jordanian military to crush the Fedayeen and expel them from Jordan by 1971.
Jordan stayed neutral during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, and King Hussein even secretly warned Israel of the planned Syrio-Egytian attack. For these reasons, many Palestinians and their allies viewed King Hussein as an Israeli stooge.
King Hussein controversially gave political support to Saddam Hussein, largely for political reasons, as Jordan relied very heavily on Iraqi oil imports.
Martial law was relaxed following the end of the Cold War, and during the 90s, oppressive restrictions were gradually relaxed. In 1994, King Hussein reversed his earlier position by signing a formal peace treaty with Israel, normalising relations. Although Hussein’s fear that he would be assassinated by a fellow Arab for signing such a treaty was not realised, the Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, was assassinated the following year by a fellow Israeli who was opposed to his peaceful overtures to the Arabs.
King Hussein died of cancer in 1999.

Jordan today
Under King Hussein’s son, Abdullah II, Jordan has generally continued to follow with a program of liberalisation and democracy. However, rising food prices and the outbreak of the ‘Arab Spring’ elsewhere in the Arab world have led to protests and further demands for reform, including a reduction in the political power of the King.

Coinage of Jordan
The first coins to circulate in the Jordanian region were probably Achaemenian Persian coins of the 6th Century BC, who adopted coinage around that time following their conquest of Lydia in Western Anatolia, who were the first civilisation to issue coins.
Coins of all the subsequent kingdoms and empires ruling Jordanian territory at various points also circulated here, latterly those of the Ottoman lira. Following the First World War and the establishment of the Emirate of the Transjordan, coins of the Palestinian pound (issued under the authority of the British Mandate) circulated within the Emirate.
In 1949, three years after the establishment of the Kingdom of Transjordan, the Jordanian dinar was introduced, replacing the Palestinian pound at par. The dinar was subdivided into 1,000 fils, 100 qirsh or 10 dirhams. Initially, coins of 1, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 fils were issued. The 20 fils denomination was dropped in 1965 and replaced with a 25 fils denomination from 1968. The ¼ dinar denomination was introduced in 1970. Since then ½ and 1 dinar pieces have also been issued.
Despite the political instability inherent within the region, the Jordanian dinar has weathered the general global trend of fiat-currency based inflation and debasement well. The 1 fil denomination was not discontinued until 1985, and today, coins of ½, 1, 2.5, 5 and 10 qirsh (piastres) as well as ¼. ½ and 1 dinar coins are used in circulation, featuring the portrait of the King on the obverse and a leaf or lattice design, with the denomination in eastern Arabic numerals on the reverse.

For Sale and Wanted
If you are interested in coins from Jordan please see our product index:-
Jordanian Coins

Gold Coins
We also have gold coins from Jordan on our taxfreegold website:-
Jordanian Gold Coins



...at the Lowest Possible Price

32 - 36 Harrowside, Blackpool, Lancashire, FY4 1RJ, England.
Telephone (44) - (0) 1253 - 343081 ; Fax 408058; E-mail: info@chards.co.uk
The URL for our main page is: https://24carat.co.uk
Web Design by Snoop