Bahrain Dinar Banknotes: From the Gulf Rupee to the Central Bank of Bahrain
Bahrain's paper money begins with a swap. For most of the twentieth century the islands ran on Indian rupees, and in 1965 a new Currency Board pulled those notes out and put a dinar in their place. Four issues have followed, and each one is a snapshot of what the country chose to put on its money: a fort, a dhow, a causeway, a mosque.
Dinar notes from 7 October 1965 Four issues, 1965 to 2008 Upgraded family from 2016 Oryx head watermark
Last updated: September 2026
Bahrain uses the Bahraini dinar, and the Central Bank of Bahrain has issued its banknotes since 2006. The notes fall into four issues: the Bahrain Currency Board family of 1965, the Bahrain Monetary Agency family of 1978 and 1979, the third issue of March 1993 and the fourth issue of March 2008, upgraded from 2016.
What currency does Bahrain use?
Bahrain uses the Bahraini dinar, issued by the Central Bank of Bahrain. The dinar has been the country's money since 7 October 1965, when the Bahrain Currency Board put the first family of dinar banknotes and coins into circulation. Three further issues followed, in 1978 and 1979, in March 1993 and in March 2008.
The Central Bank sets out that sequence itself, and it is the spine of any Bahraini collection. The Currency Board was established in 1964 and issued its notes and coins on 7 October 1965. The Amiri Decree establishing the Bahrain Monetary Agency was issued in 1973, and the Agency produced the second issue in 1978 and 1979. New security features arrived with the third issue in March 1993. After the Central Bank of Bahrain and Financial Institutions Law of 2006, the Central Bank issued the fourth family in March 2008 (Central Bank of Bahrain, Currency Issue).
The Central Bank itself is a public corporate entity created on 6 September 2006 under that law. It succeeded the Bahrain Monetary Agency, which had carried out central banking and regulatory functions since its establishment in 1973, and it inherited what the bank calls the Agency's 33 year track record (Central Bank of Bahrain, About CBB). Issuing the national currency is one of the specific duties written into Article 4 of the law.
What money did Bahrain use before the dinar?
Bahrain used Indian rupees, and from 1959 a special Gulf version of them. The Reserve Bank of India printed notes for circulation in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the Trucial States, in the same designs as the Indian notes but in different colours and carrying the prefix Z. They were redeemable only at the Bombay office of issue.
The Reserve Bank of India's own museum describes the family plainly. The Persian Gulf issues were made in the denominations of one rupee, ten rupees and one hundred rupees, and as the Gulf states issued their own currencies the notes were withdrawn over a period from the early 1960s and ceased to be used around 1970 (Reserve Bank of India, Museum). A Z prefix on an otherwise ordinary looking Indian note is the single clearest marker of pre dinar money on the islands.
Why a separate currency at all? The International Monetary Fund's survey of the region explains the background. In Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the Trucial States, parts of Oman and eastern Saudi Arabia, the Indian paper rupee had taken the place of the Maria Theresa thaler as the principal currency during the twentieth century. Dealers, mostly in Kuwait and Bahrain, moved gold into India and Pakistan and moved Indian rupees out again, and the scale of that trade is what prompted a ring fenced Gulf note (IMF Staff Papers, Currency Arrangements and Banking Legislation in the Arabian Peninsula, 1975).
The wider rupee story sits in our hub on Indian rupee banknote history and our India banknotes page.
Who has issued Bahrain's banknotes?
Three institutions have signed Bahraini paper money. The Bahrain Currency Board, established in 1964, issued the first family. The Bahrain Monetary Agency, created by Amiri Decree in 1973, issued the second and third. The Central Bank of Bahrain has issued every note since 2006. Reading the imprint dates a note immediately.
Bahrain was one of a cluster of Gulf currency boards. The IMF records that boards were set up between 1960 and 1970 by Kuwait, the Yemen Arab Republic, the South Arabian Federation, Bahrain, Qatar and Dubai, and Oman, and that all of them issued currencies to replace the foreign coins and notes previously circulating in the area. Full independence came to Bahrain in 1971, and the currency boards were then replaced by central banks or equivalent institutions, with the relevant legislation passed in Bahrain on 5 December 1973 (IMF Staff Papers, 1975).
One footnote to that period matters to collectors of the whole Gulf. Before the United Arab Emirates had its own money, Abu Dhabi used the Bahrain dinar, and the dirham only replaced it there in November 1973 (IMF Staff Papers, 1975). Bahraini notes of the first and second issues therefore circulated well beyond the islands.
The name was a deliberate choice. Saudi Arabia called its first monetary institution a monetary agency rather than a central bank, and the IMF notes that Bahrain and Qatar followed that example. The difference was presentational rather than practical: the legislation for Bahrain was as broad as the legislation for institutions that carried the words central bank in their name (IMF Staff Papers, 1975).
What was Bahrain's first dinar issue?
The first issue is the Bahrain Currency Board family put into circulation on 7 October 1965. It replaced the Gulf rupee. The banknote denominations were BD10, BD5, BD1, BD1/2 and BD1/4, and the coins ran 100 fils, 50 fils, 25 fils, 10 fils, 5 fils and 1 fils (Central Bank of Bahrain, Currency Issue).
Two things about that list repay attention. The first is the quarter dinar, a denomination that appears only in this issue and never returns, which makes it the natural anchor note for anyone building a Bahraini set by issue. The second is that notes and coins arrived together as one ladder, from a quarter dinar note down to a single fils coin, rather than as two competing systems.
The timing was not accidental. The IMF records that the Bahrain Currency Board issued the Bahrain dinar in October 1965, a few months before the Indian domestic rupee and the Gulf rupee were devalued, and that Abu Dhabi then decided to adopt the dinar in place of the rupee (IMF Staff Papers, 1975). A currency introduced for administrative reasons ended up spreading across the lower Gulf.
The second issue followed the creation of the Bahrain Monetary Agency. Issued in 1978 and 1979, it carried BD20, BD10, BD5, BD1 and BD1/2, with the coin denominations unchanged (Central Bank of Bahrain, Currency Issue). The BD20 is the new face here, and it has headed every family since.
What is on the third issue of 1993?
The third issue is the family the Bahrain Monetary Agency released in March 1993, when new security features were added to the dinar. It is also the only Bahraini issue whose designs the Central Bank describes denomination by denomination on its own site, which makes it the best documented set in the country's paper money.
The Central Bank's descriptions read like a tour of the islands. The BD10 front shows a two masted dhow under full sail, with the Central Bank noting that boat building in Bahrain has a long history and that in former days the planks of the vessels were sewn together and in later times nailed. Its back shows an aerial view of the customs and immigration island, halfway between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia on the King Fahd Causeway, a crossing 25 kilometres long that took four and a half years to build and opened officially on 26 November 1986 (Central Bank of Bahrain, Third Issue).
The rest of the family works the same way. The BD5 front carries the south western tower of Riffa Fort, built on the escarpment overlooking the Hunainiya valley, with work commencing in 1812 under the authority of Sheikh Sulman bin Ahmed al Khalifah; its back shows Bahrain International Airport, whose original international terminal opened in December 1961. The BD1 front carries a Dilmun seal, and the Central Bank dates the Dilmun civilisation to about 3200 BC and says it lasted more than 2,700 years; its back shows the headquarters of the Central Bank of Bahrain. The Central Bank's page for the BD20 gives the front as His Highness Shaikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, and the back as the Ahmad al Fateh Islamic Centre, built between 1983 and 1988 to mark the two hundredth anniversary of the rule of Bahrain by the al Khalifah dynasty, described by the bank as the largest building in Bahrain with a mosque that can hold 7,000 people.
Security is consistent across the issue. Every described denomination is watermarked with the head of an oryx and carries a wide, windowed security thread, and on the BD5 and BD1 that thread is microprinted with BMA in Latin text and Bahrain Monetary Agency in Arabic. All four carry the signature of Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa. Our guide to banknote security features explains what a windowed thread is doing.
What are Bahrain's current banknotes?
The current family is the fourth issue, released in March 2008 in denominations of BD20, BD10, BD5, BD1 and BD1/2, and upgraded from 2016 with new security features. The upgraded notes are the ones in circulation today, and the Central Bank published a detailed description of what was added (Central Bank of Bahrain, Fourth Issue).
The upgrade came in two waves. According to a press release dated 4 September 2016, the Central Bank introduced BD10 and BD20 notes like the preceding issues but with enhanced security features and tactile lines for the visually impaired, and a further press release dated 11 January 2017 covered the BD1/2, BD1 and BD5 (BanknoteNews). A later variety of the BD5, introduced in 2018, replaced the hologram at upper left front with a Spark Live Truspin patch, and new signature varieties of several denominations were confirmed in 2023.
The International Bank Note Society's record of the upgraded BD20 gives the technical detail: brown and light blue, 154 by 74 millimetres, printed by Thomas De La Rue, with King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa on the front, the Al Fateh Islamic Center in Juffair on the back, a watermark of King Hamad with an electrotype TWENTY, and a Rapid Motion windowed security thread (International Bank Note Society).
Count the raised lines and you have the denomination. The Central Bank's page on the upgraded notes explains that a series of short, raised lines was added at the middle of the front of every banknote, on the right edge, to indicate the value by touch: the BD1/2 has one line, the BD1 has two lines and so on, up to the BD20 with five. The same page describes Gemini, which shows the Arabic 20 as one colour in daylight and as two different fluorescent colours under ultraviolet light, and a Mask feature that reveals the English numeral when the note is held up to the light (Central Bank of Bahrain, upgraded BD20 and BD10, via the Internet Archive).
There is one modern collector product worth knowing about. On 19 March 2024 the Central Bank announced uncut banknote sheets for the BD1 and BD1/2 denominations, each BD1 sheet consisting of 45 banknotes and each BD1/2 sheet of 40, sold from the Currency Issue Directorate in the Diplomatic Area by appointment (Central Bank of Bahrain, 19 March 2024). A second offering announced on 1 December 2024 was limited to 250 sheets per denomination (Central Bank of Bahrain, 1 December 2024).
Bahraini banknote issues at a glance
The table sets the four issues side by side. Dates and denominations are those the Central Bank of Bahrain gives on its Currency Issue pages, and the motif column follows the bank's own descriptions where it publishes them.
| Issuer | Issue and year | Denominations | Main motifs | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bahrain Currency Board | First issue, 7 October 1965 | BD10, BD5, BD1, BD1/2, BD1/4 | Not detailed here | Replaced the Gulf rupee; the only issue with a quarter dinar note |
| Bahrain Monetary Agency | Second issue, 1978 and 1979 | BD20, BD10, BD5, BD1, BD1/2 | Not detailed here | First appearance of the BD20; coin denominations unchanged |
| Bahrain Monetary Agency | Third issue, March 1993 | BD20, BD10, BD5, BD1, BD1/2 | The ruler's portrait and the Ahmad al Fateh Islamic Centre on the BD20; dhow and King Fahd Causeway island on the BD10; Riffa Fort and Bahrain International Airport on the BD5; Dilmun seal and the monetary authority headquarters on the BD1 | Oryx head watermark; wide windowed thread, microprinted BMA on the BD5 and BD1 |
| Central Bank of Bahrain | Fourth issue, March 2008 | BD20, BD10, BD5, BD1, BD1/2 | King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa on the BD20 front, Al Fateh Islamic Center in Juffair on the back | Issued after the 2006 Central Bank law; hologram at upper left front on the early BD5 |
| Central Bank of Bahrain | Upgraded fourth issue, from 2016 | BD20, BD10, BD5, BD1, BD1/2 | Same designs as 2008, rebuilt security | BD10 and BD20 from a 4 September 2016 release, BD1/2, BD1 and BD5 from 11 January 2017; Gemini, Mask, Rapid Motion thread, Spark Live Truspin, tactile lines |
Two of the five rows share the same denomination ladder and the same year range, which is exactly why the imprint and the security features, not the face value, are what identify a Bahraini note.
How do you start collecting Bahraini banknotes?
Pick an issue and finish it. Bahrain is a small field with five denominations per family and only four families since 1965, so a complete issue is a realistic project rather than an open ended one. The quarter dinar of 1965 and the BD20 of 1978 and 1979 are the two notes that define the early end.
The upgraded fourth issue is the easy entry point, because the notes are current, the denominations are few and the Central Bank has published what each security feature does. The third issue of 1993 is the most rewarding to study, since the bank documents the designs itself and the security thread carries the Bahrain Monetary Agency imprint that dates the family. The first and second issues are the historical lane, and there the advice is to buy one clean note rather than several tired ones.
Signature and variety changes give you a second dimension. Trade press records new signature varieties of the BD1/2 and BD1 confirmed in 2023 under one signature and of the BD5, BD10 and BD20 under another, alongside the 2018 Spark Live Truspin variety of the BD5 (BanknoteNews). Those are the differences that separate two notes that look identical across a table, the same discipline our page on star notes and replacement notes describes.
Learn the grading ladder before you spend. Grades run from Uncirculated down through AU, XF, VF, F, VG and G, and the certified market uses a 1 to 70 scale: our banknote grading guide explains it, and graded versus raw banknotes covers when third party certification earns its cost. The banknote glossary defines prefixes, specimens and replacements, Pick numbers explains catalog references, and how to store banknotes matters in a humid Gulf climate. Neighbouring hubs worth reading alongside this one are Saudi Arabia, Oman and Yemen.
If you are in Manama, the Central Bank runs a currency museum inside its own building in the Diplomatic Area. It traces the history of currency in Bahrain before and after Islam, shows the money issued by the Currency Board and the Central Bank, and displays Islamic coins and official documents. Admission is free (Central Bank of Bahrain, Currency Museum).
Where can you buy Bahraini banknotes?
Buy from an established dealer that authenticates every note, documents where it came from, and stands behind it in writing. Prices far below every other seller, vague sourcing and no returns are the signals to walk away from.
Planet Banknote sources notes direct from mints, central banks and authorized distributors rather than reselling anonymous lots. Browse the current selection through the banknotes by country directory, where availability changes with what has been sourced. If you are weighing a certified note against a raw one, PMG versus PCGS explains what each grading service puts on the label. Our guide to buying world banknotes safely and how to collect world banknotes cover the rest.
Planet Banknote is a family-owned dealership in Sarasota, Florida, founded in 2021. Every note is sourced direct from mints, central banks, and authorized distributors, inspected through our Planet Banknote Verified process, and ships with a free Certificate of Authenticity. US orders ship free via USPS Priority, and every order includes a free bonus gift.
Frequently asked questions
When did Bahrain start issuing its own banknotes?
On 7 October 1965. The Bahrain Currency Board, established in 1964, issued a new family of Bahraini dinar banknotes and coins on that date, replacing the Gulf rupee. The banknote denominations were BD10, BD5, BD1, BD1/2 and BD1/4, and the coins ran from 100 fils down to 1 fils.
What money did Bahrain use before the dinar?
Indian rupees, and from the late 1950s a special Gulf version of them. The Reserve Bank of India issued notes for circulation in Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the Trucial States in denominations of one, ten and one hundred rupees. They repeated the Indian designs in different colours, carried the prefix Z, and were redeemable only at the Bombay office of issue.
Who issues Bahraini banknotes today?
The Central Bank of Bahrain, a public corporate entity created on 6 September 2006 by the Central Bank of Bahrain and Financial Institutions Law. It succeeded the Bahrain Monetary Agency, which had carried out central banking and regulatory functions since 1973. Issuing the national currency is one of the duties set out in Article 4 of that law.
How many Bahraini banknote issues are there?
Four. The first issue came from the Bahrain Currency Board on 7 October 1965. The second was issued by the Bahrain Monetary Agency in 1978 and 1979. The third arrived in March 1993 with new security features. The fourth was issued by the Central Bank of Bahrain in March 2008 and was upgraded from 2016.
What is on the Bahrain 20 dinar note?
The current BD20 carries King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa on the front and the Al Fateh Islamic Center in Juffair on the back, in brown and light blue, measuring 154 by 74 millimetres and printed by Thomas De La Rue. The Central Bank's page for the third issue shows the BD20 with the ruler's portrait and the Ahmad al Fateh Islamic Centre on the back.
How can you tell the value of a Bahraini note by touch?
By counting raised lines. The Central Bank added a series of short, raised lines at the middle of the front of every upgraded banknote, on the right edge, to indicate the denomination for people with impaired vision. The BD1/2 has one line, the BD1 has two lines, and the count rises with the denomination up to five lines on the BD20.
Are Bahraini banknotes worth collecting?
They are, and the field is unusually contained. There have been only four issues since 1965, each with five denominations, so a complete issue is a finishable project. The quarter dinar appears in the 1965 family alone, the 1993 issue is documented design by design by the issuing bank, and signature varieties give specialists a second dimension to chase.