TEHRAN – Iranian authorities have confiscated a haul of ancient coins from smugglers during a police operation in the western Iranian province of Kermanshah.

After days of intelligence operations, 144 historical coins, which date back to the Elamite, Parthian, Safavid, and Qajar periods, were seized from two illegal antique dealers, Amir Rahmatollahi, a senior police official in charge of protecting cultural heritage said on Tuesday.

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), according to Encyclopedia Iranica.

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/