2 Rials - Mohammad Rezā Pahlavī Pahlavi Rule

1976 fell in the final years of Mohammad Reza Shah's rule, just three years before the Islamic Revolution forced him into exile. The coin was issued under Bank Markazi Iran, the central bank established in 1960 to replace the older Bank Melli as the primary monetary authority. By this point the Shah's government was spending heavily on military expansion and modernization programs funded by oil revenues, and inflationary pressure was already building in the Iranian economy — conditions that contributed directly to the social unrest culminating in 1979.