Tehran Times Culture Desk

@T= TEHRAN -- Following a remarkable decision, an Iranian private collector recently donated a rare collection of ancient coins to the Astan-e Qods Razavi Museum’s Stamp and Banknote Section in the holy city of Mashhad.
Mohammad-Saeid Sadat-Akhavi donated a collection of 400 coins dating back almost 2000 years, said director of the Stamps and Banknotes Section of the museum Mohammad-Hossein Yazdinejad.
“The one-of-a-kind collection consists of coins belonging to kings and sultans before and after Islam including items from the Sassanid, Samanid, Ghaznavid, and the Seljuk dynasties.
“The coins were minted in large cities like Merv, Dinavar, Tbilisi, Heart, Astarabad, Isfahan and Mashhad. The monetary units represented are drachma, dinar and dirham and several others,” he added.
He continued, “They belonged to kings like the Parthian King Orodes II, Khosrow II, Mahmud Ghaznavi, Hulegu, Arghun Khan, Mahmud Ghazan and Mohammad Khodabandeh Oljeitu.
“The oldest coin belonged to King Orodes II and was minted 1950 years ago. Most of the coins are made of silver, copper, bronze, lead, nickel, and zinc.”
Yazdinejad went on to say that the coins, which are a great source for historians, researchers and students, are stamped with various patterns, designs, symbols, and images of kings.
Astan-e Qods museum has received a good deal of attention from collectors because of its credentials, the careful preservation of its rare artifact collections and since it is adjacent to the holy shrine of Imam Reza (AS), he concluded.
The Stamp and Banknote Section of the Astan-e Qods Razavi Museum houses a rich collection of rare stamps and coins and is visited by many Iranian and foreign pilgrims, tourists and philatelists..