Iranian Gold

One of the coins that I came away with yesterday was an Iranian 1/4 pahlavi gold coin. Minted in 1355/1935, it's .900 AU, and 14mm across.

Persia became a powerful empire under Cyrus the Great between 600 and 529 BC. In 546 BC it captured Sardis in Lydia which was the home of King Croesus and the first ever coins. Following this capture Persia started to produce it own coins, probably minting them in Sardis. When Darius I came to the throne in 521 BC, he issued gold coins which became famous as "Darics" or archers. The obverse design of these showed the king in a running kneeling position holding a spear and a bow. In 330 BC, Darius was captured by Alexander the Great of Macedon, and the great days of the Persian Empire ended. Since then Persia has had a checkered history being conquered by Assyrians, Medes, Macedonians, Seljuks, Turks and Mongols, but has retained much of its own character. Persia converted from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy in 1906. In 1921, Reza Khan took power in a bloodless coup, and in 1925 caused himself to be elected as Shah. His son Shahpur Mohammed Reza following him in 1926. In 1931 the Kingdom of Persia changed its name to the Kingdom of Iran, and in 1979, the monarchy was overthrown and Persia became the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The denominations used for Persian coins include shahi, dinars, rupees, tomans, abbasi, riyals, krans or qirans, ashrafi, mohurs, from 1930 pahlavis, and for the republic, azadis.