1359/1959 IRAQ 1 FILS COIN (KM#119): 1 Year Coin: The First Iraqi Republic

Description

1359/1959 IRAQ 1 FILS COIN (KM#119):
1 Year Coin: Issued 1 year into The First Iraqi Republic, a rich and progressive time in Iraq's History.
Made of Bronze, it weighs 2.5g, and is a respectable 19mm (comparable to a US Penny also at 19mm).
A short history of the period this coin was made and circulated in:
This coin was made in an Iraq that is long gone. It was issued in 1959 and it is a 1 Year Coin, only being issued in 1959 under the rule of President Muhammad Najib ar-Ruba'i and Prime Minister Abd al-Karim Qasim of the First Iraqi Republic and minted at the Royal Mint of the United Kingdom. The First Iraqi Republic was a state forged in 1958, one year before the issue of this coin.
Qasim is said by his admirers to have worked to improve the position of ordinary people in Iraq, after the long period of self-interested rule by a small elite under the monarchy which had resulted in widespread social unrest. Qasim passed law No. 80 which seized 99% of Iraqi land from the British-owned Iraq Petroleum Company, and distributed farms to more of the population. This increased the size of the middle class. Qasim also oversaw the building of 35,000 residential units to house the poor and lower middle classes. The most notable example, of this, was the new suburb of Baghdad named Madinat al-Thawra (Revolution City), renamed Saddam City under the Ba'ath regime and now widely referred to as Sadr City. Qasim rewrote the constitution to encourage women's participation in society.
Qasim tried to maintain the political balance by using the traditional opponents of pan-Arabs, the right wing and nationalists. Up until the war with the Kurdish factions in the north, he was able to maintain the loyalty of the army.
He appointed Minister Naziha al-Dulaimi, who thus became the first woman minister in the history of Iraq and the Arab world. She also participated in the drafting of the 1959 Civil Affairs Law, which is far ahead of its time in liberalizing marriage and inheritance laws for the benefit of Iraqi women.
In September 1960, Qasim demanded that the Anglo American-owned Iraq Petroleum Company (IPC) share 20% of the ownership and 55% of the profits with the Iraqi government. Then, in response to the IPC's rejection of this proposal, Qasim issued Public Law 80, which would have taken away 99.5% of the IPC's ownership and established an Iraqi national oil company to oversee the export of Iraqi oil. In Sept British and US officials and multinationals demanded that the Kennedy administration place pressure on the Qasim regime. The Government of Iraq, under Qasim, along with five petroleum-exporting nations met at a conference held September 10–14, 1960 in Baghdad, thereby
creating OPEC
.
The era (way ahead of its time) ended with the Ba'athist rise to power in The Ramadan Revolution, also referred to as the February 8
th
Revolution and the February 1963 coup d'état in Iraq, was a military coup by the Ba'ath Party's Iraqi-wing which overthrew the Prime Minister of Iraq, Abd al-Karim Qasim in 1963. It took place between February 8-10, 1963. Ali Salih al-Sa'di, who controlled the National Guard militia and organized a massacre of hundreds—if not thousands—of suspected communists and other dissidents following the coup.
He was succeeded by his brother, Abdul Rahman Arif, who was overthrown by the Ba'ath Party in 1968. Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr became the first Ba'ath President of Iraq but then the movement gradually came under the control of the infamous Saddam Hussein, who acceded to the presidency and control of the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC), then Iraq's supreme executive body, in July 1979.
IRAQ
1 Fils
1379 (1959)
Bronze • 2.5g • 19mm
KM#119 • Mintage: 72,000,000
Obverse
Lettering:
الجمهورية العراقية
١
فلس
١٣٧٩
-
١٩٥٩
Translation:
Republic of Iraq
1 Fils
1959 - 1379
Reverse
Lettering:
الجمهورية العراقية
١٤ تموز
١٩٥٨
Translation:
Republic of Iraq
July, 14
1958
Edge
Smooth
Thank you for looking and showing interest in this beautiful rare, coin from a unique time in the history of Iraq only two steps away from the reign of the infamous Saddam Hussein and known as the First Iraqi Republic. This coin was issued one year into the rule of the First Iraqi Republic. My hope is that you buy, take care of, and enjoy this beautiful example of a rare, and vintage coin from Iraq, with an incredibly rich historical zeitgeist. Also, a beautiful and unique Middle Eastern Country, thought to be the place of the Garden of Eden, the origin of Adam and Eve which was closed off and hidden forever, but said in the Bible to exist at the meeting of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers located in Iraq.
The price includes the coin which will be carded (encased) and shipped standard mail in safe packaging ensuring that your coin arrives in excellent condition, ebay fees, paypal fees (which take almost 1/4 of the sale, especially on small coin purchases), and a very small premium for me.
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