LE MONDE ARABE
Morocco - Tangier
First Banking Corporation Tangier. 1 Gold ounce n.d. (1954 CE), London. Hercules facing, holding a club in his right hand and a lion's skin in his left hand / Inscription : REFINED BY on two lines, then : N.M. ROTHSCHILD & SONS in circle. RMR in the center. Reeded edge.

Mint State. NGC MS66 (6066341-062)

A free port and international zone since 1923, Tangier became the headquarters of the First Banking Corporation of Tangier in 1950. Its founder, Edouard le Roux, who favored a return to a gold-based currency as a guarantee of stability, launched one-ounce coins in 1954. These coins were minted by Rothschild & Son in London and bear the effigy of Hercules, the legendary builder of the columns that mark the Straits of Gibraltar. The good looks of these ingots, naturally nicknamed "Hercules", made them very successful and they survived the closure of the "First Banking Corporation", during the brutal change of status of Tangier in 1956. In 1974, the "Hercules" was still quoted in Tangier and was on the list of known quotations of Swiss banks, although the majority of these coins had been melted down since 1960.