Sassanid Coinage and Money

From 224 to 651 CE, Sasanian rulers issued a royal coinage across an empire centered on Iran and Mesopotamia, much of the latter in present-day Iraq. Silver drahms formed its principal currency, alongside less common gold and more localized base-metal issues. Their portraits, fire-altars, mint marks and regnal dates made coins practical objects of payment and compact statements of royal rule.

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Silver and smaller denominations

The silver drahm, weighing about four grams, was the main Sasanian coin. A dāng was one-sixth of a drahm. Gold coins were rare and often commemorative or honorific, while copper, bronze and lead issues appear to have served more local or regional needs. The exact standards and circulation of these smaller coins varied; the drahm is the denomination most consistently associated with royal payments.

How a drahm was struck

Mint workers rolled silver into a sheet and cut out a round blank, called a flan. They placed it between two engraved metal tools called dies. The lower die, bearing the king’s portrait, was fixed in an anvil; a worker held the upper die, which carried the reverse, above the flan and struck it with a hammer. One blow could stamp both faces. The large, thin surface allowed space for the designs and writing, though weak contact could leave parts of an image indistinct.

Royal mints used a shared coin format across multiple production centers. Shapur II (r. 309–379) took minting equipment on eastern campaigns. Under Khosrow II (r. 590–628), duplicate dies made from a master die could be sent from the center to working mints. Officials could therefore extend the royal format to distant mints.

The king and the sacred fire

The front, or obverse, usually shows a crowned king in profile, facing right. Crown details and the Middle Persian, also called Pahlavi, inscription identify the ruler and give his titles. Ardashir I, founder of the Sasanian dynasty, used the title “King of Kings of Iran” on his coins. Their reverse identifies the fire altar as the “Fire of Ardashir,” linking a named royal foundation to the image on the coin.

Later reverses commonly show a flame rising from an altar, with attendants beside it on many issues. The inscription could date the “sacred fire” by the king’s year of rule. A regnal year counts from a ruler’s accession, so a coin marked with a year records time in relation to a particular reign. The crown, inscription and altar thus joined a ruler’s identity, the language of Zoroastrianism, an Iranian religion, and a usable date on one small object.

Reading mint marks and dates

Mint names appeared irregularly at first. Identifiable marks occur on some early special issues, but abbreviated mint signatures became widespread under Bahram IV in the late fourth century. Regnal-year dating developed on a separate timeline: it was standardized under Jamasp near the end of the fifth century. On the established layout, the mint abbreviation sits to the right of the altar and the year to its left. Both are written in Pahlavi characters.

Some abbreviations can be linked to cities. Issues from Khosrow I’s sixth-century reign (531–579) carry marks identified with Ray and Bishapur in Iran, and with Ctesiphon, near modern Baghdad. Scholars have recorded dozens of Sasanian mint signatures, although a signature can name a city, region or mint authority, and not every mark has a secure location. Many coins also circulated without a legible mint mark. Where the reading is clear, the marks show that production reached across the empire rather than remaining at one royal workshop.

Regional coinages

The royal silver drahm was not the only coinage in Sasanian territories. Copper issues could serve local or regional exchange, and their forms were less uniform than the main silver series. In former Kushan territories around Marv (modern Merv in Turkmenistan), Balkh (in Afghanistan) and Gandhara (across northern Pakistan and eastern Afghanistan), rulers known as Kushanshahs, or “Kushan kings,” issued separate gold, silver and bronze coins. They used Sasanian royal names and motifs while combining them with local designs and monetary practices. Their separate rulers and local combinations distinguish them from issues struck for the central royal series.

Payments and circulation

Coins helped the state pay troops, particularly during wars, when the volume of silver issues could rise. Governments also stated taxes and service obligations in drahms, although actual payment could be made in produce or other goods. In that case the coin supplied an accounting value without necessarily changing hands. Ransoms and war debts, by contrast, could be settled in silver weighed out for payment. Silver also left the empire through tribute and exchange, while finds as distant as China and Sweden show that Sasanian coins circulated beyond its political borders.

A silver drahm in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection, recorded from Qasr-i Abu Nasr in Iran, is one example of the dynasty’s principal currency.

After Sasanian rule

After the Arab conquest, mints continued to produce coins in the Sasanian format. Early Arab-Sasanian drahms retained the king’s bust, the fire altar and attendants, along with Pahlavi mint and date marks; Arabic religious words were added around the edge. Later issues replaced Sasanian royal names with those of local governors. The British Museum’s Arab-Sasanian drahm, for example, preserves the familiar crowned portrait and altar scene within a new political setting.

In 698–699, silver dirhams bearing Arabic inscriptions and no royal portrait were introduced at many mints. Sasanian-style issues continued in some regions into 704–705, so the transition in design took several years rather than happening everywhere at once.