Iran AH1216-Maragha riyal

Steve Album sale 16, lot 737

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, held a coup d’etat and launched the Pahlavi Dynasty in 1925 AD.

The specimen shown was lot 737 in Steve Album sale 16 (Santa Rosa, CA, May 2013), where it sold for US$110. The catalog description reads^[1]:

"QAJAR: Fath 'Ali Shah, 1797-1834, AR riyal, Maragha, AH1216, good strike, unrecorded date for this mint, previously reported only for AH1215 for Fath 'Ali Shah, nearly VF."

Recorded mintage: unknown.

Specification: 10.35 g, silver.

Catalog reference: A-2874, type of KM 678 but unlisted mint.

Sources:

• Album, Stephen. Checklist of Islamic Coins. Santa Rosa, 1998. Stephen Album.
• ^[1]Album, Stephen. Stephen Album Rare Coins - Auction 16. Santa Rosa, 2013. Stephen Album Rare Coins.
• Mitchiner, Michael. Oriental Coins and their Values - The World of Islam. London, 2000. Hawkins Publications.
• Michael, Thomas, and Tracy L. Schmidt, Standard Catalog of World Coins, 1801-1900, 9th ed., Iola, WI: Krause Publications, 2019.

Link to:

• AH 1171 1 rupi
• AH 1206 ½ toman, Yazd mint
• AH 1213 ½ toman, Tehran mint
• AH 1216 rupi, Mashhad mint, Nadir Mirza
• AH 1217 rial, Rasht mint
• AH 1217 toman, Yazd mint
• AH 1222 ½ rial, Rasht mint
• AH 1224 1 riyal
• return to coins of Iran
• Coins and currency dated 1801