TEHRAN — A collection of 63 historical coins inscribed with the name of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), ranging from the Abbasid era to the Qajar period, was unveiled for public view on Sunday.

The unveiling ceremony took place at the Dafinah Museums Institute in Tehran to mark Islamic Unity Week and the 1,500th anniversary of the Prophet’s birth.

The event was attended by Hossein Dehghan, head of the Mostazafan Foundation, Hamidreza Soleimani, chief executive of the Dafinah Museums Institute, Ahmad Mohit Tabatabaei, president of ICOM Iran, and Hamid Shahriari, secretary-general of the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought.

Katayoun Pelasaeidi, chair of the board of the Dafinah Museums Institute, outlined a brief history of coinage at the ceremony. She said trade initially relied on barter before the use of seals to mark exchanges, followed by the introduction of metal coins in Iran during the Achaemenid Empire.

She added that Parthian coins carried portraits of kings for the first time, followed by Sassanian coins with religious motifs.

“The coins unveiled today are historic pieces, the oldest from the Abbasid period and the most recent from the Qajar dynasty,” she added.

According to organizers, the collection will be on public display for two weeks at the Astan Quds Razavi Museum in Mashhad.

Islamic Unity Week is observed annually between the dates regarded by Sunni and Shia Muslims as Prophet Muhammad’s birthday.

AM