1/2 Mithqal - Muhammad Khudabanda type A, Mashhad mint

Muhammad Khudabanda came to power in 1578 largely because his son Abbas — the future Abbas I — was too young to rule, and because Khudabanda himself was nearly blind, making him acceptable to the Qizilbash amirs who wanted a manageable figurehead. The Mashhad mint held particular significance for the Safavids as the site of the Imam Reza shrine, one of Shia Islam's holiest pilgrimage centers, giving coins struck there an implicit religious weight beyond their monetary function.

Khudabanda's reign saw near-constant Qizilbash factional violence and Ottoman pressure from the west — conditions that make well-preserved gold from any of his mints genuinely uncommon.