Shahi In the name of Isma'il III Safavi, Type B, Isfahan mint

Isma'il III was a Safavid prince installed as a puppet shah in 1750 by the Bakhtiari chief Ali Mardan Khan, who needed dynastic legitimacy for his own factional ambitions. The Isfahan mint continued striking in his name even as effective authority shifted between competing Afghan, Zand, and tribal powers. By 1758 Karim Khan Zand was consolidating control over much of Persia, and coins of this type represent the dying administrative reflex of a court that had long since lost any real sovereignty — the name on the coin and the power behind it answering to entirely different men.