5 Pahlavi - Rezā Pahlavī

Reza Shah introduced Iran's first modern gold coinage in 1927 as part of a sweeping currency reform that abolished the old qiran system and established the rial. The Pahlavi denomination itself was named after the dynasty he had founded just two years earlier, following his forced abdication of the Qajar Shah Ahmad in 1925. The State Bank of Iran did not yet exist — it was not established until 1928 — so early issues were managed through the Imperial Bank of Persia, a British-chartered institution Reza Shah deeply resented and was actively working to replace.

The series ran only three years before design modifications were introduced, keeping surviving examples of this first type relatively scarce in choice condition.