Oman Currency

Oman Currency

Rial, the Currency of Oman has an interesting historical background. The main currencies circulating in Oman before 1940 were the Maria Theresa Thaler (locally known as rial) and the Indian rupee. The Thaler mainly circulated in the interior and the rupees in the coast region. In the year 1940, coins were introduced to be used in Dhofar and in 1946 the same followed for Oman. In the year 1970, the Oman Currency underwent a change when Rial Saidi was made the Currency in Oman. The new rial which was introduced, was divided into 1000baisa. The Rial Saidi was replaced by Rial Omani in the year 1973. The name of the currency was replaced because of the regime change that took place in 1970 and also due to the successive change of the country's name.

Omani Rial, the Oman Currency has got several denominations. The Omani Rial, abbreviated as OMR is divided into 1000 baisa, also known as baiza. The notes included in the Currency at Oman have several denominations like there are OMR 1, 5, 10, 20 and 50. With this there are 100, 200, 250 and 500 baiza. The denomination of the coins are 5, 10, 25 and 50 baiza.

The tourists coming to Oman will not face any problems related to Oman Currency . All the major credit cards and the American Express cards are accepted in Oman. There are more then 70 ATMs in Oman. Moreover the traveler's cheque are easily exchanged in Oman. The travelers are advised to have the traveler's cheque in US Dollars so that they can avoid the additional exchange rate charges. The time of the banking hours in Oman are as follows

•  0800-1200hrs from Saturday-Wednesday.

•  0800-1130hrs on Thursday.

The exchange rates which are at present followed in Oman from January 2007 are

•  1 Pound = OMR 0.74

•  1 Dollar = OMR0.38

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