Larin - Tahmasp I

The larin was not a Safavid invention — the wire-based, folded silver form circulated widely across the Persian Gulf, Indian Ocean trade routes, and as far as Ceylon long before Tahmasp I's reign. What the Safavids did was absorb and legitimize it, striking examples that bore dynastic authority while remaining immediately recognizable to merchants who had no interest in learning a new monetary form. Portuguese traders encountered larins throughout the Gulf in the 16th century and documented them extensively, occasionally countermarking examples for their own commercial use.