Radiant Lion Imperial Persian Silver rial, circa 1930 minted under Reza Shah. The Radiant Lion motif, with upheld sword and sunburst, was an ancient Persian royal symbol, and Reza Shah, though reformist by inclination, had no desire to terminate 2500 years of Persian monarchy.
The Silver rial of this period was minted in high Silver content (.828 Silver, 82.8%) and therefore much appreciated by traders, hoarders and Tribals, which latter would create whole necklaces of these coins, embellished with granulations and wire-work and set with coloured glass simulating gemstones, and made into pendants. Such necklaces were wearable stores of wealth, providing considerable prestige in the wearing.
Afghani Tribals in the Iran/Afghan border areas created most of these tribalized Silver rial pendants around the mid-1950s, mostly in the fertile affluent regions around Herat, an Afghan city close by the border. Herat has always been Persianized, often over the last two thousand years directly under the control of whatever power ruled its mighty neighbour.
The above Tribal Afghani Silver rial pendant is becoming an increasingly rare example of its type, for over the last decades the exigencies of war and strife, along with the present massive increase in the world Silver price, has led to the melting down and monetizing of huge quantities of Tribal Silver.