1 Tumân - Nāṣer al-Dīn Qājār

Nāṣer al-Dīn Shāh ruled Iran for nearly fifty years — the longest reign of any Qājār monarch — before being assassinated at the shrine of Shah Abdol-Azim in May 1896, just two years after this piece was struck. The 1 Tumân denomination sat at the top of the gold coinage hierarchy in everyday practical terms, the 5 Tumân being largely ceremonial. By the 1890s the Iranian treasury was under severe strain, partly from the concessions Nāṣer al-Dīn had sold to foreign interests, most notoriously the 1890 Régie tobacco concession, which triggered a nationwide boycott and forced its cancellation the following year.