Alexander III of Macedon, commonly known as Alexander the Great and called as Alexander the Cursed in Persian Zoroastrian scripts, was the king of ancient Macedon. He studied under Aristotle by the age of 16 years old. He managed to establish one of the largest empires of the ancient world before the age of 30 years old. After the murder of Philip II of Macedon who was Alexander’s father, he assumed leadership and was enthroned in 336 B.C.E. Having inherited a powerful country and a skillful army from his father, Alexander attacked Minor Asia in 334 B.C.E. that was ruled by the Achaemenides. He managed to defeat Darius III, the last king of the Achaemenides, in a ten-year war and consequently he conquered all the Persian kingship. Alexander established new cities across his conquered territories, the most famous of which is Alexandria located in modern Egypt. Alexander’s conquest in Persia did not result in stoppage of activities of mints and they continued their operation by his coins. Alexander’s coins were so beautiful with lots of artistic intricacy and delicacy. Gold and silver coins were designed with various designs such as the figure of Athena and the head of Hercules draped in a lion skin on the obverse and the goddess of Nike and a seated Zeus on the reverse together with the name of Alexander. He died at the age of 32 in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar in Babylon

Ardashir I, the founder of the Sasanian Empire rose to power after defeating and killing the last king of the Parthian Empire in Hormozgan located in Khuzestan and established the Sasanian dynasty in 224 BC. Ardashir was crowned at the Temple of Anahita in Istakhr. He founded a dynasty that ruled for some 428 years. This powerful dynasty collapsed when Arabs invaded their territories and killed Yazdgerd III, the last Sassanid king in 652 BC. During the rule of Sasanians, gold and silver and copper coins were called Dinar, Dirham and Pashiz respectively. Each of these coins had some denominations and decimals. Each of these kings had different crowns. Usually, names and titles of kings appeared in the circular inscriptions on the coins. Sassanid coins were so diverse in terms of designs and motifs. Through careful study of these coins, one could identify and get information about the real faces of Sassanid kings, types of hair and bears styles and accessories they used. Locations and years of minting the coins were included on the reverse together with the design of the fire vase as of the middle of their reign.

Before the rise of Islam, the Arabs used common silver Dirhams of the Sassanid and the gold Byzantine coins (Dinars) in their trade and commercial activities. Dirhams and Dinars were purely used based on their weight values by Arabs and they did not pay much attention to the physical appearance of the coins. Arabs called gold Dinars and silver Dirhams as Ein and Varagh respectively. This trend continued after the advent of Islam during the rule of first three rulers after the prophet. Arabs began minting coins during the reign of the third ruler and made little modifications on the molds of Sassanid Dirhams. The first coins minted of this type bore some images of Yazdgerd III, Khosrow II and rarely Hormoz IV. They all bore features of Sassanid coins and the only difference made in the appearance of these coins was writing some Islamic terms such as such as Bismillah (in the name of God) and Jayyed (nice) in Kufic script on the edge of these coins.

Ḳarā Ḳoyūnlū Muhammad, the chieftain of Ḳarā Ḳoyūnlū tribe, who was residing around Lake Van together with his tribe during the rule of Abusaed, rose up using the existing chaos and conquered Azerbaijan and Iraq. He formed a dynasty that remained for more than 94 years. They incorporated an image of a black sheep on their flags and according they were called ‌ Ḳarā Ḳoyūnlū (meaning owners of black sheep). They were defeated by Uzun Hasan, the chieftain of the Aq Qoyunlu tribe (meaning owners of white sheep).

AQ Qoyunlu Turkmans were a Turkman tribe whose main living place was Diyar Bakr. They were named AQ Qoyunlu (owners of white sheep) due to the sign and color of their flags. Their real founder was Qarayuluk Osman. Uzun Hasan was the most famous ruler of this dynasty who defeated Abusaeed, one of the Timurid rulers and consequently conquered Azerbaijan, Fars, Isfahan and Khorasan. As the result of internal scuffles, AQ Qoyunlu Dynasty declined and finally its last ruler, Alvand Mirza, was defeated by Ismail I, also known as Shah Ismail I, who was the founder of the Safavid dynasty. It occurred in a region close Nakhichevan ‌in 1501 that resulted in the demise of AQ Qoyunlu Dynasty. Coins of AQ Qoyunlu were made of silver and bronze. The coins of this age could be divided to two groups namely countermark coins and common coins.

The Qajar dynasty was an Iranian tribe ruling over Iran from 1789 to 1925. The ancestors of the Qajar tribe were of the Turkic origin in north east of Iran who migrated to Iran from Central Asia following the invasion of Mongols. This dynasty was founded by Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar (Romanized Âqâ Mohammad Xân-e Qâjâr). He chose a village named Tehran as his capital. The last king of Qajar Dynasty was Ahmad Shah whose government was toppled by Reza Shah Pahlavi in 1925. Having declared independence, ‌ Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar minted coins in spite of all wars and conflicts. His mintage of coins was a political ploy. The main currency during this dynasty were Rial, Toman, Qiran, Dah Shahi and Panj Shahi. Coins were made of copper, gold and silver. Gold coins included 2 Ashrafi, 1 Ashrafi, 5 Hezari and 2 Hezari. Coinciding with the 30^th anniversary of Naser al-Din Shah’s rule, the first modern Iranian mint was established.

Reza Khan Mirpanj, also known as Reza Shah, rose to power via a coup in 1920 and became the minister of war. Then he was promoted to the position of the prime minister and finally he was become the king. He was crowned in 1925 and ruled for 16 years till 1941. He founded the Pahlavi Dynasty. He was succeeded by his son, Mohamad Reza Pahlavi in September 1941 who ruled Iran until February 1979. During the reign of Reza Shah the currency of Iran changed to Rial which has retained its position as the official currency up to now. During the rule of the first and second kings of Pahlavi, various coins made of gold, silver, bronze, copper and nickel were minted. Additionally, some coins and medals were minted on special occasions. Some of these coins were minted as part of the formalities of those events.