TEHRAN – A total of 5,000 historical coins being kept at Rasht Museum of Anthropology in northern Gilan province have been documented.

“5,000 coins dating back to different historical epochs including Achaemenid, Parthian, Elamite, Sassanid, Umayyad, Al-Buwayh, Seljuks and Mongol ilkhans, and Elymais, have been documented,” the provincial tourism chief Masoud Hallajpour announced on Saturday.

According to Encyclopedia Iranica, coins and coinage, standardized units of metal used as a medium of exchange, were first introduced into Persia by the Achaemenid Darius I (521-486 BC).

Before modern times the Persian economy consisted of a conglomeration of regional economies, each with a mint and a currency system geared to local commerce, rather than an integrated national economy. For this reason, it is more sensible to study changes in the output (weight, fineness) of a single mint over time, rather than trying to arrive at an estimation of a nonexistent national norm.

AFM/MG