Elemental Analysis of Naser al-Din Shah's Qajar silver Qirans Struck in Kerman

Jozi, Zohre; Saadat Mehr, Muhammad Amin

doi:10.22059/jarcs.2020.297585.142849

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

¹ Assistant professor of Archeology Department of University of Sistan and Baluchestan, Sistan and Baluchestan, Iran.

² Ph.D. Graduated of Archeology Department of Mazandaran University, Mazandaran, Iran.

https://doi.org/10.22059/jarcs.2020.297585.142849

Abstract

The city and province of Kerman has always been of special importance due to its many economic and commercial opportunities, in addition to which it has had a high political position for the Qajar rulers; For these reasons, the mint has been active for a long time until 1878 AD. It was established in this city that during the period of Naser al-Din Shah Qajar (1847-1895 AD) many silver qirans were written between the years 1848-1849, 1852-1855, 1860, 1863-1867, 1869-1871, 1873, 1875-1876, and 1878 AD. Had beaten. The coinage system of the Naseri period, although nominally following the system of Tehran, but in practice each city had an autonomous military and the coins of most cities were minted with different amounts of silver purity. These issues raise two questions for the Kerman Mint: 1- What is the purity of the main elements (silver, copper, iron, gold, and lead) of the coins minted in Kerman and how has it changed? 2- What is the purity of silver coins of Kerman city, in the position of important economic city, in comparison with other important cities of Iran, such as Mashhad, Tabriz, Tehran, Isfahan, and Shiraz? Therefore, in order to answer these questions, elemental analysis of coins of this period using PIXE method due to its non-destructiveness, speed and high accuracy, became the main basis of this research. In this study, 23 coins in 19 different dates and 4 coins were analyzed to measure the validity of the results and analyzes, which resulted in a trend of changes in the purity of silver on average in three time periods between 1848-1855 AD. He explained 90.09%, 1860-1871 AD 86.53%, 1873-1878 AD 84.17%, and in the whole multiplication period 87.16%, and its position in terms of the purity of silver in front of Mashhad mints (84%), Tabriz (82%), Tehran (90%), Isfahan (84%), and Shiraz (90%). Also, valuable information was obtained on the type of silver mines used, namely the Cerussite mines and how the coins were minted with copper and iron metals.

Keywords

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Elemental Analysis of Naser al-Din Shah's Qajar silver Qirans Struck in Kerman

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Volume 13, Issue 2 - Serial Number 26September 2021Pages 129-148

Volume 13, Issue 2 - Serial Number 26
September 2021
Pages 129-148