Pearl Museum, Emirates NBD

Early coins used by traders in the Gulf came from the kingdoms around the Aegean sea dating from the 6th or 7th centuries B.C.

Best known was the famous coinage of Athens, bearing the head of Athena on the obverse and an owl and olive branch on the reverse.

Later coinage from the Sabaeans and Himyarites of southern Arabia also followed these Greek models.

Alexandar, the great produced the most famous coinage of the ancients, and imitations continued in the Gulf for many years.

Roman coins circulated widely, though at the time of the Prophet Muhammad's (PBUH) birth, the main coins for trade were Byzantine gold solidi and Sasanian silver drachms.