Persian numismatics — knowledge base
A structured index of the topics covered across daily reference articles, the catalogue, the glossary, and the journal. Each topic is summarised in one paragraph and linked to the era, mint, ruler and term pages that describe the same entity from a different angle.
Coins
Denominations, weight standards, and the metal types that defined each Iranian monetary epoch.
The Achaemenid daric: empire's first gold standard
History, weight standard (~8.4g), iconography (kneeling archer), trade reach.
The siglos: silver companion to the daric
Silver siglos minted in Sardis, exchange rate with gold daric, archer types.
Parthian tetradrachms and Greek heritage
Seleucid weight standard, Greek legends on early Arsacid coinage, royal portraits.
Parthian silver drachms: a 400-year series
Continuity of the seated archer reverse, Hellenistic-to-Iranian portrait shift.
The Sasanian drachm: numismatic backbone of late antiquity
Thin broad flan, Pahlavi legends, fire altar reverse, mint signatures, regnal years.
Sasanian gold dinars and royal ceremony
Rare ceremonial issues, Shapur I bust types, weight tied to Roman aureus.
Lydian electrum and the invention of coinage
Why true coinage starts in Lydia/Persia's western frontier, lion-and-bull stater.
Elymais: a forgotten kingdom on the Karun
Bronze and silver of Kamnaskires and Orodes, Aramaic legends, Susa region.
Arab-Sasanian drachms: continuity after conquest
Why early Umayyad governors kept Sasanian dies, bismillah margin, Tabaristan series.
Abd al-Malik and the 696 coinage reform
The first purely epigraphic Islamic dinar, theological motivation, weight standard.
The Abbasid silver dirham as a global currency
Reach into Scandinavia, mint cities of Iran, calligraphic evolution.
Samanid gold and the Nishapur mint
Bukhara's bureaucracy, Nishapur's output, Persian renaissance under Samanids.
Buyid coinage and Shiʿi titulature
Adud al-Dawla's medallic dinars, revived Persian titles, Baghdad and Shiraz mints.
Seljuq dinars between caliph and sultan
Dual naming of caliph and sultan, Malik Shah issues, expanding mint network.
Ilkhanid coinage after the Mongol conquest
Trilingual inscriptions, conversion to Islam under Ghazan, Tabriz tankas.
Timurid coinage: silver tanka of Samarkand and Herat
Ulugh Beg's Herat tanka, astronomical context, Persian artistic flowering.
Aq Qoyunlu coinage: White Sheep in Tabriz
Uzun Hasan and Baysunghur tankas, transition to Safavid coinage.
The Safavid abbasi: a silver standard for an empire
Shah Abbas reform, weight of the abbasi, mint cities across the realm.
Shah Ismail I and the Shiʿi shahada on coins
Twelver Shiʿi legends, Tabriz mint, religious-political messaging in metal.
Nader Shah's Indian campaign and the double rupee
Plunder of Delhi, Kabul-mint silver rupees, hybrid Persian-Mughal weight standards.
Karim Khan Zand: a vakil's coinage from Shiraz and Khoy
Zand titles ('Vakil al-Ra'aya'), modest gold issues, post-Afsharid civil war.
The Qajar toman: gold for a transforming empire
Fath-Ali Shah portrait issues, Nasir al-Din's machine-struck gold, value vs. dollar.
Fath-Ali Shah and the return of the royal portrait
First Qajar to put his bust on coins, beard iconography, propaganda value.
Nasir al-Din Shah and Iran's first machine-struck coins
Imported Belgian presses, Tehran mint modernization, uniform strike quality.
The Pahlavi: 20th-century gold of the Iranian crown
Reza Shah's silver and gold, full and quarter Pahlavi sizes, post-1925 modernization.
The 1971 medal for 2,500 years of Persian monarchy
Persepolis celebration, commemorative coins and medals, Pahlavi iconography.
Dynasties
The ruling houses behind Persian coinage, with the kings and reforms each contributed.
The Achaemenid empire in coins and inscriptions
Cyrus to Darius III, satrapal coinage at Sardis and elsewhere, royal road economy.
Seleucid Iran and Greek coinage in the East
Antiochus III at Ecbatana, tetradrachms, Persian responses (Frataraka).
The Sasanian dynasty through its coins
Ardashir I to Yazdegerd III, crown changes per king, propaganda in metal.
Yaqub al-Layth and the Saffarid coinage
Sistani coppersmith turned ruler, Persian revival, dirham issues.
The Khwarazmshahs on the eve of Mongol invasion
Ala al-Din Muhammad's gold, fragile empire, Genghis Khan's reprisal.
Ghaznavids: Persian-Turkic synthesis in coinage
Mahmud's dinars, dual Arabic-Sanskrit legends from India, Iranianate court.
The Qajar dynasty in coins
From Agha Mohammad Khan to Ahmad Shah, gradual modernization through tomans.
Mints
Cities whose workshops struck the silver and gold of empire, with mint marks and chronology.
The Isfahan mint under Shah Abbas
Maydan-i Naqsh-e Jahan's craft district, Safavid silver output, mint signatures.
Tabriz: a thousand years of striking coins
Ilkhanid, Aq Qoyunlu, Safavid, Qajar — why Tabriz hosted so many capitals' mints.
Mashhad and the shrine-city mint
Pilgrimage economy, Shah Tahmasp dinars at Imam Reza's mint, Safavid silver.
Tehran becomes a mint capital
Qajar move of administration to Tehran, modernization under Nasir al-Din.
Ctesiphon and the Sasanian capital's mintwork
Court mint near the Taq Kasra, drachm output, mint signatures (CT/CTI).
Iconography
The recurring symbols on Iranian coins — fire altars, kneeling archers, lions and suns.
The Lion and Sun: a thousand-year emblem
Origins in Seljuq/Mongol iconography, Safavid adoption, Qajar standardization.
The fire altar on Sasanian coins
Zoroastrian theology, two attendants iconography, mint and date placement.
Reading the kneeling archer on the daric
Royal hunter vs. warrior interpretation, posture, bow type, Greek reception.
Kufic calligraphy on early Islamic coinage
Angular script, theological mottos, regional Kufic variants on Abbasid dirhams.
Nastaliq on Safavid and Qajar coins
Persian cursive replacing Arabic Kufic, poetic couplets on tomans, royal titulature.
Banknotes
The history of Iranian paper money, from 1890 Imperial Bank tomans to the new toman.
1979 revolution and Iran's overprinted banknotes
Crown overprints, transition coinage, monetary continuity through political rupture.
The Imperial Bank of Persia and its tomans
British charter, payable-in-city banknotes (Yazd, Tehran), Naser al-Din era.
Reza Shah and the rial banknote series
1932 currency reform from toman to rial, Bank Melli, first state-issued notes.
Pahlavi-era banknotes: portraiture and modernism
Mohammad Reza Shah portrait notes, Persepolis vignettes, design evolution.
Banknotes of the Islamic Republic
Religious iconography, Imam Khomeini portrait series, security features.
Art & Architecture
Visual culture that frames the coinage — Persepolis reliefs, mosques, miniatures.
Persepolis and Achaemenid monumental sculpture
Apadana reliefs, gift-bearing delegations, link between palace art and coin imagery.
Naqsh-e Rostam: rock reliefs as state propaganda
Shapur I's triumph over Valerian, kings' tombs above, parallels with coin portraits.
Bisotun: Darius's trilingual victory monument
Old Persian / Elamite / Babylonian text, the role in deciphering cuneiform.
Pasargadae and Cyrus the Great's vision
Palace gardens (chahar bagh origin), tomb of Cyrus, transition to Persepolis.
Taq-i Kasra: the great arch of Ctesiphon
Largest single-span vault of antiquity, Sasanian engineering, Arab-era afterlife.
Isfahan's Naqsh-e Jahan: a Safavid stage set
Shah Abbas's planned square, Sheikh Lotfollah and Imam mosques, mint quarter.
The Sheikh Lotfollah mosque: jewel of Isfahan
Private royal mosque, peacock dome, Safavid tilework at its peak.
The Pink Mosque (Nasir al-Mulk) of Shiraz
Late-Qajar stained-glass mosque, dawn light, Western-influenced Iranian design.
Chogha Zanbil: a 13th-century-BC Elamite ziggurat
Untash-Napirisha's complex, pre-coinage Iranian monumental religion.
Practice
Hands-on numismatics: reading dates, grading, authenticating, storing and conserving.
Reading Pahlavi script on Sasanian drachms
Letter forms, royal name conventions, regnal years, mint signatures (BBA, AS, WH).
Reading Hijri dates on Iranian coins
Hijri vs. Iranian solar calendar, common date formats, AH-to-CE conversion.
Grading Iranian coins: VF, EF, UNC explained
Sheldon-style grading applied to thin Sasanian flans and Qajar machine-struck.
Authenticating Persian coins: common forgeries
Cast vs. struck, modern Iranian fakes of Sasanian drachms, weight tests.
Storing and conserving silver and gold coins
Humidity, PVC, hand contact, archival flips, why not to clean ancient coins.
Hack silver: cut coins as bullion
Why dirhams reach Scandinavia in fragments, weight-based economy, Viking hoards.
Entity hubs
Every topic on this page resolves to a richer entity page elsewhere on Persian Treasury.