Persian Treasury
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The Dinar: a Persian numismatic guide

The gold dinar, from Sasanian issues to the Umayyad reform and its Persian medieval successors. 12 catalogued examples spanning Sasanian Empire, Arab-Sasanian & Early Islamic, Qajar Dynasty.

Catalogued
12
Eras
3
Metals
2
Denominations
2

Sasanian Empire · 224 – 651 CE

Era overview →

Bahram V Gold Dinar

Bahram V (Bahram Gur)

420–438 CE

Hero of Persian epic — celebrated in Ferdowsi's Shahnameh and Nezami's 'Haft Peykar'. Gold dinars are rare; eastern mints (Sind) supplied trade with India.

Shapur I Gold Dinar

Shapur I

c. 260–272 CE

Sasanian gold dinars were comparatively rare, used for diplomatic gifts and high-value trade with Rome and India. Shapur I's gold issues celebrate his triumphs over three Roman emperors — most famously the capture of Valerian in 260 CE.

Shapur III Gold Dinar

Shapur III

383–388 CE

Shapur III concluded the long partition of Armenia with Rome (387 CE), dividing it into Persian and Roman spheres. His gold issues are far rarer than the silver and were probably commemorative or diplomatic.

Arab-Sasanian & Early Islamic · 651 – 1258 CE

Era overview →

Umayyad Gold Dinar

Abd al-Malik (post-reform)

77 AH / 696 CE

First purely epigraphic Islamic coin — a revolution in monetary art.

Samanid Gold Dinar (Nishapur)

Abd al-Malik I (Samanid)

955–956 CE

Samanid silver dirhams flooded Viking-age trade; vast hoards found from Russia to Sweden.

Ghaznavid Gold Dinar

Mas'ud III (Ghaznavid)

1099–1115 CE

Ghaznavid Indian campaigns funded vast gold issues from Mahmud onward.

Great Seljuq Gold Dinar

Malik-Shah I

1072–1092 CE

Issued across a vast empire from Anatolia to Transoxiana.

Ilkhanid Gold Dinar of Arghun

Arghun Khan (Ilkhanid)

AH 684 / 1285–1286 CE

Bilingual Arabic-Uighur issue from the Mongol Ilkhanate of Iran, before Ghazan's conversion to Islam.

Abbasid Gold Dinar of Harun al-Rashid

Caliph Harun al-Rashid

AH 184 / 800 CE

Struck at the height of the Abbasid Caliphate's prestige under the patron of the 'Thousand and One Nights' court. Abbasid gold dinars circulated as the dominant trade coin from al-Andalus to Sogdia, and the standard was rigorously maintained for over two centuries.

Ghurid Gold Dinar of Mu'izz al-Din

Mu'izz al-Din Muhammad of Ghor

AH 599–602 / 1202–1206 CE

Mu'izz al-Din (also Muhammad of Ghor) extended Ghurid rule from Afghanistan into northern India, founding the Delhi Sultanate's precursor state. His coinage circulated from Herat to the Gangetic plain.

Khwarazmshah Gold Dinar of Muhammad II

'Ala' al-Din Muhammad II

1200–1220 CE

Muhammad II ruled one of the largest empires of the Islamic Middle Ages — from the Caspian to the Indus — but his execution of Mongol envoys provoked Genghis Khan's catastrophic invasion of 1219–1221, ending the Khwarazmian state and beginning the Mongol era in Iran.

Qajar Dynasty · 1789 – 1925 CE

Era overview →

Naser al-Din Shah 50 Dinar Copper

Naser al-Din Shah Qajar

1848–1896 CE

Low-denomination copper coin (1/2 shahi = 50 dinar) for everyday market transactions. The 1877 mechanisation finally drove out the old hand-struck 'falus' coppers that had varied wildly between local mints.

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Denominations here

Metals here