1 Shahi - Isma`il I Safavi Saveh, First Standard

Isma'il I founded the Safavid dynasty in 1501 and immediately imposed Twelver Shi'a Islam as the state religion — a politically violent rupture with the Sunni Ottoman and Uzbek neighbors who would spend the next century trying to roll it back. The coinage was a direct instrument of that declaration. The shahi denomination itself was named after Shah Isma'il, a deliberate break from earlier Timurid and Aq Qoyunlu monetary traditions he was displacing.

Saveh, in the central Iranian plateau, was among the earlier mints active under his first coinage standard. Album 2576 distinguishes this first standard from later Isma'ili issues by its weight and formula — the type was reformed as the dynasty consolidated.