Iran AH1303 5000 dinars
This specimen was lot 834 in Stephen Album sale 30 (Santa Rosa, CA, January 2018), where it sold for $235. The catalog description[1] noted, "IRAN: Nasir al-Din Shah, 1848-1896, AV 5000 dinars, Tehran, AH1303, NGC graded MS62." The Qajars were a group of Turkic origin who lived in the area of Azerbaijan. They were sympathetic to the Safavids, who ruled in Persia from 1501-1736 AD. The Qajar Dynasty began when Mohammad Khan Qajar seized Mashhad (then under Durrani suzerainty – see Afghanistan) and put an end to the Afsharid Dynasty. The Qajars were forced to fight several defensive wars against Russia, losing territory each time. Foreign powers became more involved in Persia as the strategic nature of the region became clear. The empire was nearly bankrupt by the end of the 1800’s, and the dynasty finally fell when Reza Khan, a commander of the Persian Cossack Brigade, led a coup d’etat and launched the Pahlavi Dynasty in 1925 AD. This tiny gold coin is listed for AH 1297-1313; this denomination was also struck in silver.
Recorded mintage: unknown.
Specification: 1.43 g, 0.900 fine gold, .041 troy oz AGW.
Catalog reference: Fr-63, KM-927.
- Friedberg, Arthur L. and Ira S. Friedberg, Gold Coins of the World, From Ancient Times to the Present, 9th ed., Clifton, NJ: Coin and Currency Institute, 2017.
- Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1801-1900, 9th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.
- [1]Album, Stephen, Joseph Lang, Paul Montz, Michael Barry and Norman Douglas Nicol, Auction 30, featuring the George Anderson Collection of Tibetan Coins, the Dr. John W. Lund Collection of Swedish Coins and the Mike Edwards Collection, Santa Rosa, CA: Stephen Album Rare Coins, Inc., 2018.
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