Islamic Republic Coins

The transitional overprints

The first money of the Islamic Republic was Pahlavi money with the Shah's face obliterated. Existing note stocks were overprinted — an arabesque block over the portrait, sometimes a Lion-and-Sun watermark left visible — and circulated while new designs were prepared.

These transitional overprints are the most collected single area of modern Iranian paper. Varieties depend on the overprint pattern, the underlying note series and denomination, and whether the watermark portrait was also treated.

Designing a republic

New coinage removed the royal portrait entirely. The obverse carries the tulip-shaped Allah emblem adopted in 1980 and the date in the Solar Hijri calendar; reverses show the shrine of Imam Reza at Mashhad, the Ka'ba, the Aqsa mosque, Azadi Tower, or a floral wreath with the denomination.

Banknotes follow the same programme, with an added documentary strand: designs commemorating the revolution, the Iran–Iraq war, the Islamic Consultative Assembly and scientific achievement. Later series carry portraits of Ayatollah Khomeini, first appearing in the 1980s and standard on higher denominations since.

Inflation as a design driver

The story of this coinage is denominational inflation. Coins of 1, 2 and 5 rials, ordinary in the 1980s, were abandoned as their metal value overtook their face value; the circulating range moved to 500, 1,000, 2,000 and 5,000 rials.

On paper the same pressure produced first the 100,000 rial note and then the iran cheque instruments of 500,000 and 1,000,000 rials, which function as currency in practice. A long-running redenomination programme proposes replacing the rial with the toman at 1:10, formalising what Iranians already say in shops.

Collecting modern Iran

This is the most accessible field in Iranian numismatics: nearly everything can be assembled in uncirculated condition at low cost, and a full date run of a coin type is a realistic project rather than a lifetime's work.

Where value does appear it is specific: overprinted transitional notes, low serial numbers, replacement notes, commemorative issues struck in small numbers, and mint errors. For notes, grade is decisive — crisp uncirculated examples are worth multiples of the same design with folds.

Because the material is recent and abundant, provenance matters less here than anywhere else in the catalogue, which makes it a good starting point for new collectors before moving back into hand-struck and ancient series.