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Bahrain: No.5 Five dinars
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First issued — 16 October 1965.
Size — 152 mm x 72 mm.
Signature — Sheikh Khalifah bin Sulman al Khalifah.
Watermark — The head of a falcon.
Security thread — Solid.
Printer — Thomas de la Rue and Company.
Illustration — Crest of Bahrain, with a dhow in full sail and two beached dhows.
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Illustration — Two pearling dhows with crews and divers, with one dhow anchored and one underway – Bahrain has been famous since antiquity for its pearls, with the ancient Roman commentator Pliny recognizing Tylos (the Roman name for Bahrain) as ‘famous for the vast number of its pearls’. It was the wealth generated by the harvesting of pearls that attracted many powers to the island, including the Portuguese in the sixteenth century and the current ruling family, the al Kalifah (who originally came from Kuwait). The pearling industry has been in decline for most of the twentieth century, with almost no pearling being undertaken in the second half of the century. However the memory of the industry and its rewards lingers in Bahrain.
The pearl-diving industry in Bahrain was strictly controlled by the Government, with the season being rigorously regulated and policed. Diving could only be conducted without breathing equipment. The illustration that appears on the 5-dinar notes of the first and second series has been composed from two photographs by Sir Charles Belgrave, the advisor to the Sheikh of Bahrain. The boat on the left is from a photograph that appear in Sir Charles’ book Personal Column, being an account of his time in Bahrain, while the second boat is from a photograph published in Welcome to Bahrain by James H. D. Belgrave (the son of Sir Charles). The second photograph illustrates a boat with oars fixed horizontally, divers in the water and crews on the deck. The oars are fixed horizontally so that two ropes may be thrown over each oar, one with weights is attached to a diver and one to a bag for collecting the oysters. The divers wear either a simple loin cloth or a cotton garment to protect them from the sting of the blue jelly-fish. On their hands they wear leather guards and on their nose most divers attach nose-clips of bone or tortoise shell. The divers descend to a maximum depth of twelve fathoms with the aid of the weighted rope, and once at the bottom they release themselves from that rope which is then hauled to the surface. Staying under water for about one and a half minutes, the diver collects as many shells as possible before tugging on the second rope to be hauled to the surface.
The boats used for pearling were either the ‘sambuq’ or the ‘jalibut’.