1 Rial

Struck under the Central Bank following the post-revolutionary redenomination, this small bronze issue circulated during the period of acute economic strain brought on by accumulated war debt from the 1980–1988 Iran-Iraq conflict and sustained international sanctions. By the mid-1990s, the rial had lost so much purchasing power that single-rial coins were functionally worthless in everyday transactions — vendors routinely declined them.

The type survived in official mintage through 1997 largely by institutional inertia.