250 Rials

This bimetallic issue entered circulation as Iran was rebuilding its economy following the catastrophic drain of the 1980–1988 war with Iraq, during which the rial had lost a staggering proportion of its value. The denomination was part of a broader effort to rationalize coinage in the post-war period under President Rafsanjani's reconstruction government. Iran was among the earlier Middle Eastern states to adopt bimetallic technology for circulating coinage, a format then gaining popularity worldwide following its successful deployment in Italian lire issues of the 1980s.

The series ran across three presidential administrations without design modification — an unusual continuity for a republic that had changed coinage types repeatedly since the 1979 revolution.