Short, sourced answers to the questions most often asked about Persian and Iranian coinage and paper money.
The earliest coinage of the Iranian world is the gold Daric and silver Siglos of the Achaemenid Empire, introduced under Darius I around 515 BCE. They were minted primarily at Sardis in Lydia and remained the international gold standard of the eastern Mediterranean for nearly two centuries.
The Daric (Old Persian: daraniya) is a pure gold coin of about 8.4 grams introduced by Darius I of Persia around 515 BCE. It depicts the Great King as an archer kneeling with a bow and spear and is one of the first widely circulated gold coins in world history.
A Sasanian drachm is a broad, thin silver coin (typically 3.9–4.2 g) struck across the Sasanian Empire (224–651 CE). The obverse carries the king's crowned bust in Pahlavi inscription; the reverse shows a Zoroastrian fire altar flanked by two attendants. Mint and regnal year are spelled out in Pahlavi script.
The rial is the official currency of Iran since 1932. The toman is a traditional unit equal to 10 rials, and in everyday Iranian speech prices are still quoted in toman. In 2020 the Iranian parliament approved a redenomination making the toman the official currency at a rate of 1 toman = 10,000 old rials; the transition is ongoing.
Iran's first banknotes were issued in 1890 by the Imperial Bank of Persia under a concession granted by Naser al-Din Shah Qajar. Each branch issued its own non-fungible notes, redeemable only at the issuing branch. Bank Melli Iran took over note issue in 1932, and Bank Markazi (the Central Bank) in 1961.
Banknotes of the Islamic Republic of Iran carry the portrait of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Republic. Pre-revolutionary Pahlavi notes carried the portrait of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi. After 1979 the Pahlavi imagery was overprinted and later replaced entirely.
The Lion and Sun (Shir-o-Khorshid) is one of the oldest emblems of Iran. Adopted as a state symbol under the Safavids and codified by the Qajars in the 19th century, it depicts a lion holding a sword with a rising sun behind it. It appeared on coinage, banknotes and the national flag until the 1979 revolution.
Pahlavi is the writing system used for Middle Persian, the official language of the Sasanian Empire. On coins it appears in two main forms: cursive 'Book Pahlavi' on most issues, and the more angular 'Inscriptional Pahlavi' on early Sasanian and rock inscriptions. It is read right-to-left.
Achaemenid sigloi weighed about 5.6 g. Parthian drachms targeted ~4.0 g on the Attic standard. Sasanian drachms held remarkably steady at 3.9–4.2 g for four centuries. Early Islamic dirhams (post-reform of 696 CE) standardised at ~2.97 g, a weight that anchored Islamic silver coinage from Spain to Central Asia.
Safavid silver coins (shahis, abbasis, mahmudis) carry on the obverse the Shi'a kalima naming Ali and the Twelve Imams, and on the reverse the ruler's name, the mint and the date — all in elegant Nastaʿlīq or Thuluth script. Some commemorative issues include the names of the Imams arranged around a central cartouche resembling a mihrab.
On 4 May 2020 the Iranian parliament passed a bill removing four zeros from the rial and renaming the currency the toman, so that 10,000 old rials = 1 new toman. The Central Bank of Iran has begun issuing 'Iran cheque' transitional notes denominated in toman; full transition will take several years.
The first purely Islamic gold dinar was struck in 696–697 CE (AH 77) under the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan. It abandoned all figurative imagery in favour of Arabic Qur'anic inscriptions, replacing the Byzantine solidus type previously imitated in the Levant.