Numismatic Glossary

The vocabulary of Persian coinage — from the Achaemenid daric to the modern toman, with the Greek, Pahlavi and Arabic terms a collector needs to read a catalogue entry.

Abbasi: Safavid silver coin of c. 7.7 g introduced by Shah Abbas I (r. 1588–1629), worth four shahis. Main circulating denomination of Safavid Iran.
AH (Hijri): Anno Hegirae — the Islamic lunar calendar dating from the Prophet's emigration to Medina in 622 CE. Used on Islamic-era coinage.
Archer-king: The canonical Achaemenid coin type showing the Great King kneeling or running with bow and spear. Five sub-types (I–V) per Carradice's classification.
Arsacid: The Parthian royal dynasty (247 BCE – 224 CE), founded by Arsaces I. The seated archer reverse depicts the deified Arsaces.

Bullion: Precious metal valued by weight rather than face value. Pre-Achaemenid Iran used silver bullion (hacksilber) before struck coinage.

Daric: Achaemenid gold coin of ~8.4 g and ~95% purity, introduced by Darius I. Worth 20 silver sigloi.
Dinar: Gold coin of the Islamic world (~4.25 g), inherited from the Roman denarius aureus and standardised by the Umayyad reform of 696 CE.
Dirham: Silver coin of the Islamic world (~2.97 g), inherited from the Sasanian drachm and standardised in 696 CE. From Greek drachmē.
Drachm / Drachma: Silver coin standard inherited from Greek practice. The Sasanian drachm of ~4 g circulated for four centuries and survived as the Islamic dirham.

Fire altar: The standard reverse of Sasanian coinage: a Zoroastrian fire altar flanked by two attendants. Used continuously from Ardashir I to Yazdegerd III (224–651 CE).
Frataraka: 'Governor' in Old Persian. Local dynasts of Persis (c. 280–140 BCE) who struck silver coins in Achaemenid style under Seleucid suzerainty.

Hacksilber: Cut and weighed silver fragments used as pre-monetary currency in the ancient Near East, including Median-era Iran.
Hammer-struck: Manufacturing method using two dies and a hammer blow. Used for all Persian coinage from the Achaemenids through to early 19th-century Qajar issues.

Kidaris / Cidaris: The tall crown worn by the Achaemenid king on coinage, derived from earlier Median and Elamite headgear.

Milled coinage: Machine-struck coinage with reeded edges, introduced to Iran under Nasir al-Din Shah Qajar in the 1870s using British-supplied equipment.
Mint mark: An abbreviation indicating where a coin was struck. Sasanian mints used Pahlavi monograms (e.g. WH for Ctesiphon, MY for Merv); Islamic mints used Arabic city names.

Pahlavi (coin): Modern Iranian gold coin introduced 1927 and continued to 1979. Denominations: 1/4, 1/2, 1, 2½, 5 and 10 Pahlavi.
Pahlavi (script): Middle Persian script used on Sasanian coinage to write the king's name and titles around the obverse portrait.

Qiran: Qajar silver coin of c. 4.6 g introduced under Nasir al-Din Shah in the 1820s. Ten qirans equalled one toman.

Rial: The modern Iranian currency, introduced by Reza Shah in 1932 to replace the qiran at parity. Subdivided into 100 dinars.

Shah / Shahanshah: Persian 'king' / 'King of Kings' — the standard royal title from the Achaemenids to 1979.
Shahi: Safavid and post-Safavid silver coin of approximately 1.9 g. Four shahis made one abbasi.
Siglos: Achaemenid silver coin of ~5.4 g, the everyday companion to the daric. Twenty sigloi equalled one daric.

Tanga / Tanka: Silver coin of Timurid and post-Timurid Central Asia, ancestor of the Indian rupee and the modern Tajik somoni.
Tetradrachm: Greek silver coin worth four drachms (~17 g). The principal denomination of Seleucid and Parthian Mesopotamia, struck at Seleucia-on-the-Tigris.
Toman: Persian gold unit equivalent to 10,000 dinars or, from the 19th century, 10 qirans. Still used colloquially in Iran today.