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.
The questions above are the ones we are asked most often. The notes below answer a second set of questions that arise once a reader has spent an afternoon looking at the catalogue: how to handle and store coins, what determines value, where to start a collection, and how to spot a forgery.
Start with the obverse portrait. Each Sasanian king wore a distinctive crown — Ardashir I's spherical kulah, Shapur I's castellated mural crown, Khosrow II's tall winged korymbos — and the crown alone usually identifies the issuer. The legend around the portrait gives the king's name in Pahlavi script (read right to left); the form is normally "mzdysn bgy [name] MLKAn MLKA" — "Mazda-worshipping divine [name] king of kings". On the reverse the central design is the fire altar with two attendants; the Pahlavi inscription to left and right of the altar gives, respectively, the regnal year and the mint city. Late Sasanian issues use two-letter abbreviations for mints — WH, ST, AY, GO, NY — which are tabulated in any standard reference.
Safavid silver carries the Shi'a profession of faith — "there is no god but God, Muhammad is the messenger of God, Ali is the friend of God" — on one face, and the ruler's name and the date of striking on the other. The script is Nastaʿlīq (a flowing Persian cursive), which is harder to read than the angular Kufic of early Islamic coinage but rewards practice. The shahi (one-quarter abbasi) and abbasi denominations are distinguished by weight and by which Imams are named — five Imams on the shahi, all twelve on the abbasi. The mint city is named on the reverse below the ruler's name; Isfahan, Tabriz, Mashhad and Tiflis are the most commonly encountered.
The basic rules are: handle only by the edges, never with bare fingers; store in inert holders (Mylar flips, capsules or hard plastic slabs — never PVC, which oxidises and damages metal); and keep them away from humidity, temperature swings, and direct sunlight. Bronze and silver coins are more sensitive than gold; gold is essentially inert and can survive almost anything except mechanical abrasion. Never clean a coin — what looks like dirt is usually the patina, and the patina is part of the coin's history and value. A reputable third-party grading service (NGC Ancients, PCGS) can encapsulate a coin in a sealed slab if you want long-term storage without further handling.
Roughly, in order of importance: condition, rarity, demand and provenance. Condition is graded on a scale from Poor (1) to Mint State (70) for modern coins, or by descriptive terms (Fine, Very Fine, Extremely Fine) for ancient material. Rarity is measured against known surviving examples — a Sasanian drachm of Khosrow II is common in any grade, while a Sasanian dinar of any ruler is genuinely rare. Demand depends on the collecting community: Islamic-period gold has strong demand from Middle Eastern collectors; Achaemenid silver is sought by both classical and Persian collectors. Provenance — a documented chain of ownership — can substantially increase value, particularly for material that left Iran before the 1970 UNESCO convention on the illicit trade in cultural property.
Modern forgeries of Persian coins fall into three broad families: cast copies, struck copies using transfer dies, and genuine ancient coins with their inscriptions tooled to upgrade them to a rarer ruler. Cast copies show a granular surface and often a seam on the edge; struck copies show subtle softness on high points of the design and incorrect die alignment; tooled coins show artificial sharpness in the inscriptions inconsistent with the wear pattern of the rest of the coin. A modern X-ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis will reveal alloy compositions that did not exist in antiquity — for example, the trace antimony content of Sasanian silver differs measurably from modern refined silver. When in doubt, buy from established dealers with a written authenticity guarantee, or have the coin certified by a reputable grading service.
A good entry point for the Iranian field is a Sasanian drachm of Khosrow II (590–628 CE). Tens of millions were struck; even very fine specimens are inexpensive; the iconography is unmistakable; and dozens of different mints and regnal years are available, so a single ruler can sustain a serious sub-collection. For Islamic-period material a set of Safavid abbasis of Shah Abbas I (1588–1629) from different mints makes a beautiful and manageable collection. For the modern period the Pahlavi gold series (1, 2½, 5 and 10 Pahlavi) and the full Mohammad Reza Shah banknote series (5 to 10,000 rials) are both achievable goals at moderate cost.
Laws vary by country and have changed significantly since the 1970 UNESCO convention. In most jurisdictions ownership of Persian coins acquired through documented and legitimate channels is entirely legal; what is restricted is the import of objects that left their country of origin after national export controls were in force. Iran has had cultural-property export controls since 1930; the United States has had bilateral agreements with Iran intermittently. The safe rule is to keep all purchase invoices, to favour material with documented pre-1970 provenance, and to consult a specialist lawyer before buying or shipping high-value pieces across borders.