Ahmad Shah was thirteen years old when he ascended the Qajar throne in 1909, placed there after his father Mohammad Ali Shah was deposed following the Constitutional Revolution. These coins were struck during the early years of his reign, when effective power rested with a regent and foreign creditors — Britain and Russia had effectively divided Iran into spheres of influence under the 1907 Anglo-Russian Convention, leaving the central government chronically short of revenue and the coinage intermittently disrupted.
The Tehran mint operated under considerable strain during this period. Ahmad Shah's full reign ran until 1925, when Reza Khan's coup ended Qajar rule entirely.
Ahmad Shah was thirteen years old when he ascended the Qajar throne in 1909, placed there after his father Mohammad Ali Shah was deposed following the Constitutional Revolution. These coins were struck during the early years of his reign, when effective power rested with a regent and foreign creditors — Britain and Russia had effectively divided Iran into spheres of influence under the 1907 Anglo-Russian Convention, leaving the central government chronically short of revenue and the coinage intermittently disrupted.
The Tehran mint operated under considerable strain during this period. Ahmad Shah's full reign ran until 1925, when Reza Khan's coup ended Qajar rule entirely.