Silver coinage of Persia and Iran

Pre-monetary Hacksilver

c. 800–600 BCE

Pre-monetary silver weighed against grain standards; recovered from Nush-i Jan and Tepe Hasanlu hoards.

Silver Siglos (Type IIIb)

Xerxes I – Artaxerxes II

c. 485–375 BCE

20 Sigloi = 1 Daric. Hundreds of thousands survive — the most common Achaemenid coin.

Satrapal Coin of Asia Minor

Achaemenid satrap (probably Tiribazos)

Early 4th century BCE

Among the earliest realistic portraits in Western coinage.

Mazaios Satrapal Double Shekel — Babylon

Mazaios, Satrap of Babylon

c. 331–328 BCE

Struck by Mazaios, the Achaemenid satrap who surrendered Babylon to Alexander in 331 BCE and was confirmed as governor. His coinage is a hinge moment: Achaemenid satrapal iconography continued unchanged into the early Macedonian administration.

Philisto-Arabian / Samarian Obol

Local Achaemenid governors

c. 450–333 BCE

Tiny silver fractions struck by Achaemenid-appointed governors of the Levantine coast — blending Persian, Greek and Phoenician iconography. Image: closely related satrapal type.

Sidonian Double Shekel under Achaemenid Suzerainty

Abd'ashtart I / Straton I of Sidon

c. 365–352 BCE

The most explicit numismatic image of Achaemenid imperial overlordship — the Phoenician vassal king literally walks behind the Persian Great King's chariot.

Early Seleucid Tetradrachm

Antiochos I Soter (Seleucid)

281–261 BCE

Anchor symbol referenced the Seleucid dynasty's founding legend.

Antiochus III "the Great" Tetradrachm

Antiochus III

222–187 BCE

Struck in massive quantities to fund eastern campaigns.

Greco-Bactrian Tetradrachm of Diodotus I

Diodotus I (Greco-Bactrian)

c. 250 BCE

Diodotus broke from the Seleucids to found the Greco-Bactrian kingdom — Hellenistic coinage striking deep into eastern Iran.

Antiochus IV Epiphanes Tetradrachm

Antiochus IV Epiphanes

175–164 BCE

The most ambitious Seleucid king after Antiochus III — his eastern campaigns took him deep into Iran where he died in 164 BCE near Tabae in Persis. His coinage is the high-water mark of Seleucid royal portraiture.

Antiochus VII Sidetes Drachm — Ecbatana

Antiochus VII Sidetes

138–129 BCE

Last Seleucid push east — Antiochus VII briefly recaptured Media from the Parthians in 130 BCE before dying in battle at Ecbatana, ending Seleucid presence on the Iranian plateau.

Greco-Bactrian Tetradrachm of Euthydemus I

Euthydemus I

c. 230–200 BCE

Withstood a three-year siege by Antiochus III at Bactra. His coinage is the high-water mark of Greco-Bactrian portrait engraving. Image: related Diodotid Bactrian tetradrachm.

Mithradates I Tetradrachm

Mithradates I

171–138 BCE

First king to title himself 'Great King'.

Mithradates II Drachm

Mithradates II

121–91 BCE

Coinage shifts from Greek to Iranian royal imagery.

Orodes I Silver Tetradrachm

Orodes I

90–77 BCE

Orodes I ruled in a turbulent period of Arsacid civil war. His successor Orodes II would later defeat Crassus at Carrhae (53 BCE).

Phraates IV Silver Tetradrachm

Phraates IV

37–2 BCE

Phraates IV defeated Mark Antony's Parthian expedition (36 BCE) and later received the four Roman legionary standards lost at Carrhae back from Augustus (20 BCE) — a diplomatic coup commemorated on Roman coinage. His Seleucia tetradrachms are precisely dated month-by-month.

Vologases I Tetradrachm

Vologases I

51–78 CE

Vologases I founded a new dynastic branch and is credited by Pahlavi tradition with the first systematic collection of the Avesta. His reign coincided with Rome's wars over Armenia and the Treaty of Rhandeia (63 CE).

Artabanus IV Drachm

Artabanus IV (last Arsacid)

c. 213–224 CE

Killed by Ardashir I at the Battle of Hormozdgan in 224 CE — the end of the Arsacid dynasty after nearly five centuries and the dawn of the Sasanian empire.

Kingdom of Persis – Drachm of 'Darius'

Darius II of Persis (Darayan)

1st century BCE – 1st century CE

The semi-autonomous Frataraka and later kings of Persis ruled the Achaemenid homeland under Seleucid then Parthian overlordship. Their coins preserve Persian religious iconography (fire altar, royal figure) that the Sasanians would revive and standardise.

Persis Frataraka Tetradrachm

Vahbarz / Vadfradad (Frataraka)

c. 220–140 BCE

The Frataraka ('Foremost') were local princes of Persis (modern Fars) who minted in a deliberate revival of Achaemenid iconography — the ideological seed-bed of the later Sasanian dynasty. Image: related Persis silver of Darius II of Persis.

Ardashir I Drachm

Ardashir I (founder)

224–242 CE

Founder of the dynasty after defeating Artabanus IV.

Shapur I Drachm

Shapur I

240–272 CE

Defeated three Roman emperors including Valerian (captured 260 CE).

Khosrow I (Anushirvan) Drachm

Khosrow I

531–579 CE

Currency reformer; standardised drachm weight and purity. Massive output.

Khosrow II Drachm

Khosrow II

590–628 CE

Most common Sasanian coin; struck in huge quantities through 38-year reign.

Peroz I Drachm

Peroz I

459–484 CE

Peroz's wars against the Hephthalites bankrupted the empire and he was killed in battle in 484. From his reign onward, mint and year on Sasanian drachms enable precise dating.

Kavad I Drachm

Kavad I

488–531 CE (two reigns)

Kavad's reforms paved the way for Khosrow I. His support for the radical Mazdakite movement marks one of the most dramatic episodes in late antique Iran.

Yazdegerd III Drachm

Yazdegerd III (last Sasanian)

632–651 CE

Killed at Merv. His coins continued posthumously into the Arab-Sasanian series.

Bahram II Drachm

Bahram II

276–293 CE

Bahram II's coins are exceptional in Sasanian numismatics for showing the royal family together — a propaganda response to the religious challenge of Manichaeism, brutally suppressed under his predecessor Bahram I.

Bahram Chobin (Bahram VI) Drachm

Bahram Chobin (usurper)

590–591 CE

A Sasanian general from the Mihran clan who briefly seized the throne from Khosrow II — the only non-Sasanian to rule Iran between Ardashir I and the Arab conquest. Khosrow II recovered the throne with Byzantine help; Bahram Chobin's coins were struck for barely a year.

Arab-Sasanian Drachm

Ubayd Allah ibn Ziyad

673–683 CE

Transitional issue — Sasanian iconography continued for 50 years after the conquest.

Ilkhanid-era Silver Dirham

Citing Ghazan Khan as overlord

1296–1304 CE

Reformed coinage after Ghazan's conversion; bilingual issues.

Tahirid Silver Dirham

Tahir ibn Husayn

821–822 CE (AH 206)

Tahir founded the first quasi-independent Iranian Islamic dynasty in Khorasan (821–873), nominally loyal to the Abbasid caliph.

Saffarid Silver Dirham

Ya'qub ibn al-Layth al-Saffar

861–879 CE

The 'Coppersmith' rose from a militia leader in Sistan to ruling Iran from Fars to Khorasan — founder of the Saffarid dynasty and a hero of Iranian self-rule against the Abbasids.

Buyid Silver Dirham

'Adud al-Dawla (Buyid)

AH 372 (982–983 CE)

The Buyids (934–1062) controlled the caliph in Baghdad while openly using Persian royal titulature on their coinage — a deliberate Iranian revival.

Tabaristan Hemidrachm (Abbasid Era)

Issued under Caliph al-Mahdi

AH 158–169 / 775–785 CE

Long after the Arab conquest the Caspian province of Tabaristan retained semi-autonomous local dynasties (Dabuyids, then Abbasid governors) who continued striking Sasanian-style half-drachms with Pahlavi script — among the latest survivals of pre-Islamic Iranian coinage, well into the late 8th century.

Great Mongol Dirham — Bukhara

Möngke Khan (in name of Great Khan)

AH 651–658 / 1253–1260 CE

Pre-Ilkhanate Mongol coinage of Iran and Transoxiana, struck before Hulagu's conversion of his line to a Persian-style sultanate. Image: related Ilkhanid dirham.

Timur Silver Tanka

Timur (Tamerlane)

AH 795 / 1393 CE

Struck in Timur's name while nominally honouring the Chagatai khan — the silver tanka standard he established was inherited by his successors and later the Safavids.

Ulugh Beg Silver Tanka

Ulugh Beg

AH 850–853 / 1447–1449 CE

Ulugh Beg — astronomer-king and grandson of Timur — issued tankas continuing the high silver standard of his father Shah Rukh's shahrukhi.

Safavid 20 Shahi (Isfahan, 1690)

Shah Suleiman I

AH 1101 / 1690 CE

Heavy ceremonial multiple of the shahi denomination, struck at the Safavid capital. Continues the Shia-doctrinal coinage type first standardised by Shah Ismail I in 1501.

Safavid Silver Abbasi

Shah Suleiman I (Safavid)

1666–1694 CE

The denomination 'abbasi' was named after Shah Abbas I (1588–1629) and remained the standard Safavid silver trade coin across the Persian Gulf for over a century.

Coin of Shah Sultan Husayn

Sultan Husayn

1694–1722 CE

Last great Safavid issues before the Afghan siege of Isfahan (1722).

Shah Ismail I Silver Shahi — Tabriz

Shah Ismail I (founder)

1501–1524 CE

First coinage of the Safavid empire from its founding capital. Shah Ismail's elevation of Twelver Shi'ism to state religion in 1501 was an act of historic religious transformation, and his coins are its first physical declaration.

Shah Tahmasp I — Imam Reza Mint, Mashhad

Shah Tahmasp I

1524–1576 CE

Tahmasp's 52-year reign stabilised the dynasty after his father's defeat at Chaldiran (1514). His Mashhad coinage, struck at the Shrine of Imam Reza, was a powerful Shia statement directed at the Sunni Ottoman and Uzbek neighbours.

Shah Abbas I 'the Great' — Mashhad

Shah Abbas I

1588–1629 CE

Shah Abbas built modern Iran — a centralised administration, the relocated capital at Isfahan, and a silk monopoly that drew European trading companies. The 'abbasi' silver coin (~7.7 g) bearing his name became the gold standard of Indian Ocean trade for two centuries.

Qara Qoyunlu Silver Tanka — Tabriz

Jahan Shah

AH 841–872 / 1438–1467 CE

The Qara Qoyunlu ('Black Sheep') Turkmen briefly ruled western Iran and Iraq, and were displaced by the Aq Qoyunlu in 1467. Jahan Shah is famous as builder of the Blue Mosque of Tabriz. Image: related Aq Qoyunlu Tabriz gold.

Nader Shah Silver Double Rupee

Nader Shah Afshar

1738–9 CE (AH 1151)

Bilingual issues struck after the conquest of Delhi in 1739.

Nader Shah Silver Rupee — Isfahan

Nader Shah Afshar

AH 1148–1160 / 1736–1747 CE

Struck at the former Safavid capital after Nader took the throne in 1736. Heavy issues from melted Mughal treasure circulated alongside his Indian-mint rupees.

Fath-Ali Shah Silver — Ganja Mint

Fath-Ali Shah Qajar

Early 19th century

Struck at the Ganja mint in the contested Caucasus frontier — the city was ceded to the Russian Empire under the 1813 Treaty of Gulistan, ending Qajar minting there. 1 toman = 10 qiran = 1000 dinars.

Ahmad Shah Qajar — Tehran Mint

Ahmad Shah Qajar

1909–1925 CE

Last Qajar ruler — crowned aged 11, deposed by Reza Khan in 1925. His machine-struck Tehran-mint coinage carries solar Hijri (SH) dates.

Mozaffar al-Din Shah — Tehran Mint

Mozaffar al-Din Shah Qajar

1896–1907 CE

Mozaffar al-Din Shah signed the 1906 Constitution that established Iran's first parliament (Majles), making him the last absolute Qajar monarch. His machine-struck Tehran coinage in qirans and tomans set the standard for late-Qajar circulation.

Fath-Ali Shah Silver — Isfahan Mint

Fath-Ali Shah Qajar

1797–1834 CE

Isfahan remained one of the principal Qajar mints, continuing the Safavid tradition. Silver issues here carried the heaviest provincial production for the central Iranian plateau.

Fath-Ali Shah Nowruz Treasure Coin — Tabriz

Fath-Ali Shah Qajar

AH 1226 / 1811–12 CE

Special presentation issue ('sekke-ye sahib-qiran') struck for the Nowruz New Year celebrations at the Tabriz mint — distributed at court as ceremonial largesse rather than circulating currency.

Naser al-Din Shah Silver Qiran — Tehran

Naser al-Din Shah Qajar

1848–1896 CE

The qiran (1/10 toman) was the workhorse silver coin of Naser al-Din's 48-year reign — the longest of any Qajar shah and the longest of any Iranian monarch until the late 20th century.

Naser al-Din Shah Qiran — Herat Mint

Naser al-Din Shah Qajar

c. 1856 CE

Issued during the brief Iranian occupation of Herat (1856), which triggered the Anglo-Persian War — by the Treaty of Paris (1857) Iran formally renounced all claims to Herat, ending centuries of Persian sovereignty over the city.

2500-Year Celebration Commemorative Medal

Mohammad Reza Shah

SH 1350 / 1971

Issued for Persepolis ceremonies celebrating 2500 years of Persian monarchy.

Reza Shah First Nowruz Commemorative

Reza Shah Pahlavi

SH 1305 / 1926

Struck for the first Nowruz of the new Pahlavi era — Reza Shah was crowned on 25 April 1926 and the spring equinox that followed was celebrated as the dynastic refoundation of Iran.

Reza Shah Silver 5 Rial (1938)

Reza Shah Pahlavi

SH 1317 / 1938

Reza Shah's portrait silver — the first Iranian circulating coin since pre-Islamic Sasanian times to depict a living ruler's face. Issued in 1, 2 and 5 rial denominations from 1932 to 1942.