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Lot

№ 1063

.

17 April 2024

Estimate: £30,000–£40,000


An Extremely Rare 1931 Double Proof Set

Iraq, Faisal I, Double Proof set, 1931/AH1349, struck at the Royal Mint, comprising two examples each of the 50 Fils, 20 Fils, 10 Fils, 4 Fils, 2 Fils, and 1 Fil (KM 95-100) [12]. Extremely fine or better, an extremely rare set; in case of issue, lid stamped iraq currency board £30,000-£40,000

Abraham Elkabir OBE, and by descent

Mr Abraham Elkabir (sometimes known as Ibrahim El-Kabir) was born in Baghdad on 8th July, 1885. He was educated to a high level at the many schools run by the ruling Ottoman state, and then at the Alliance Israelite Universelle. After the Young Turk revolution of 1908 he formed, together with a number of his friends, a committee dedicated to the encouragement and improvement of education within the community. He was also taken up by Nazim Pasha who served as vali of Baghdad in 1910-11, and who consulted him on many reform projects.

During the First World War Abraham Elkabir was appointed liquidator of enemy concerns taken over by the state. After the war and the formation of the kingdom of Iraq his services were secured for the ministry of finance by the minister, Sir Sason Heskel, who had him appointed as assistant accountant-general in 1921. This was the beginning of a long and eminent career in the service of the Iraqi state in which, for almost thirty years, Abraham Elkabir devoted his great abilities to the creation of an orderly system of public finance for the new state.

He was accountant-general in 1927-1934, and director-general of the ministry of finance for long periods thereafter. He played a prominent part in many national and international financial negotiations: he represented Iraq in the financial negotiations connected with the Treaty of Lausanne which settled the issues pending between the Allies and the Ottoman Empire and its successor, Turkey: towards the end of the Second World War he represented Iraq at the Dumbarton Oaks and Bretton Woods conferences which created the post-war world monetary system; he played a large part in the replacement of the Indian rupee by the Dinar, the Iraqi national currency: he organised the flotation of the first public loan promoted by the Iraqi government; and collaborated in the foundation of the national bank of Iraq.

Mr Abraham Elkabir, OBE, died in London in 1973.