1/2 Rial - Rezā Pahlavī

Reza Shah's monetary reform of 1932 replaced the older Qiran system with a decimalized Rial structure, and this half-Rial belongs to the transitional period during which the new denominations were being introduced to a population still accustomed to the previous currency. Reza Shah had seized power in 1921 and was crowned in 1925, spending much of the following decade aggressively modernizing Iran's institutions — the coinage reform was inseparable from that broader program of state centralization.

The .828 silver fineness is specific to this series and was not carried forward into later Pahlavi coinage.