The geography of Persian coinage — fifteen cities that struck the daric, the Sasanian drachm, the Abbasid dinar, the Safavid abbasi and the modern toman. Most mints operated under successive dynasties, leaving a layered numismatic record.
Birthplace of the daric and siglos and the primary Achaemenid mint for archer-type coinage. Continued as a major Hellenistic and Roman mint after Alexander.
Median capital and Achaemenid summer residence. Mint mark 'HMD' appears on Parthian drachms; later one of the most active Islamic mints of western Iran.
Ceremonial heartland. After Alexander, the local Frataraka and Persis dynasties struck silver drachms here, retaining Persian iconography (fire altar, archer) under Hellenistic influence.
Achaemenid administrative capital; later an Elymaean mint producing distinctive bronze tetradrachms with frontal portraits.
Greek foundation of Seleucus I; the principal mint of Parthian tetradrachms, dated by Seleucid Era.
Sasanian winter capital. Coins from the mint signature 'WH' / 'ḤRY' likely belong here; central to the high-volume drachm output of Khosrow I and II.
Eastern frontier mint. A major Sasanian centre (signature 'MY') and later a Samanid silver-mining capital before the Mongol destruction of 1221.
Heart of the Samanid silver-dirham economy whose coins reached Viking-age Russia and Scandinavia in vast numbers.
Twin Samanid capitals; the gold coinage of Bukhara set the trans-Asian standard for two centuries.
Abbasid caliphal capital. The reformed dinar and dirham of Harun al-Rashid set the standard imitated across the Islamic world.
Major Parthian and Sasanian mint ('RY' signature) destroyed by the Mongols in 1220; eventually overshadowed by neighbouring Tehran.
Ilkhanid capital and the principal Safavid mint under Shah Ismail. Continued producing crown-prince coinage under the Qajars.
Safavid capital from 1598; the principal Safavid mint of the abbasi and shahi denominations. Continued through the Afsharid and Qajar periods.
Sacred to Shi'a Islam as the shrine of Imam Reza. Nader Shah crowned himself here and struck coins from the city's mint to fund his Indian campaign.
Capital from Agha Mohammad Khan onward. The Imperial Mint produced Nasir al-Din Shah's reformed toman and every modern Iranian coin since.