KM# 128 - 50 FILS
Copper-Nickel, 23 mm. Obv: Value within circle above sprigs,
legend above Rev: Palm trees divide dates
The Republic of Iraq, historically known as Mesopotamia, is
located in the Near East and is bordered by Kuwait, Iran, Turkey,
Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. It has area of 167,925 sq. mi.
(434,920 sq. km.) and a population of 14 million. Capital: Baghdad.
The economy of Iraq is based on agriculture and petroleum.
Crude oil accounted for 94 percent of the exports before the war
with Iran began in 1980.
Mesopotamia was the site of a number of flourishing civilizations
of antiquity - Sumeria, Assyria, Babylonia, Parthia, Persia
and the Biblical cities of Ur, Ninevehand and Babylon. Desired
because of its favored location, which embraced the fertile alluvial
plains of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, Mesopotamia -
'land between the rivers'- was conquered by Cyrus the Great of
Persia, Alexander of Macedonia and by Arabs who made the legendary
city of Baghdad the capital of the ruling caliphate. Suleiman
the Magnificent conquered Mesopotamia for Turkey
in1534, and it formed part of the Ottoman Empire until 1623, and
from 1638 to 1917. Great Britain, given a League of Nations mandate
over the territory in 1920, recognized Iraq as a kingdom in
1922. Iraq became an independent constitutional monarchy presided
over by the Hashemite family, direct descendants of the
prophet Mohammed, in 1932. In 1958, the army-led revolution of
July 14 overthrew the monarchy and proclaimed a republic.
NOTE: The ‘I' mintmark on 1938 and 1943 issues appears
on the obverse near the point of the bust. Some of the issues of
1938 have a dot to denote a composition change from nickel to
copper-nickel.
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