What You Will Learn in This Lesson
Gold in Iran does not come in just one form. When people quote "the gold price," they usually mean 18 karat gold, but the market also trades melted gold (طلای آبشده, tala ye ab shodeh) and four sizes of gold coin (Emami, Bahar Azadi, half, quarter, and one gram), each priced differently. This lesson explains how these types differ, what builds each one's price, and how to work out the intrinsic value of a gram of gold by hand with a numeric example.
Definitions
Karat (عیار, eyar) is the ratio of pure gold to a piece's total weight. Pure gold is too soft for jewelry on its own, so it is alloyed with metals such as copper or silver. 24 karat means nearly pure gold (999 parts per 1,000); 18 karat, the most common standard in Iran's market, means 750 of every 1,000 grams is pure gold and 250 grams is alloy. That is why it is also called "750 gold."
Melted gold is old, broken, or design-less jewelry that has been melted down in a furnace into bars or raw pieces. Because it carries no design or making charge, its value is calculated purely from weight and purity.
The full coin (Emami and Bahar Azadi) is a standard gold piece with 900 per 1,000 purity and a weight close to 8.136 grams. The Bahar Azadi is the older design, minted between 1979 and 1991 (1358 to 1370 in the Iranian calendar); the Emami is the newer design, minted since 1991 (1370). The two do not differ in weight or purity; the difference is the design on the coin and its mint year.
The half coin, quarter coin, and one gram coin are fractions of the same full coin: the half coin weighs about 4.07 grams, the quarter coin about 2.03 grams, and the gram coin about 1 gram; all three are struck at the same 900 per 1,000 purity.
The coin premium is the gap between a coin's market price and its intrinsic value (its pure gold weight multiplied by the world price and the dollar rate). The exact mechanics of this premium are a separate lesson, but to understand a coin's price you need to know this gap exists.
Where the Price of Gold and Coins Comes From
The price of a gram of 24 karat gold in Iran is built from two global variables and one domestic one: the world price of an ounce of gold in dollars, the free-market dollar to toman rate, and the ounce to gram conversion (one ounce equals 31.1035 grams). Multiplying these three together gives the intrinsic value of a gram of pure gold. For 18 karat gold, that figure is multiplied by the purity ratio (750 of 1,000, or 0.75).
That is only the intrinsic value. The price you see at a jewelry shop for handmade pieces has three more components: the making charge (the goldsmith's labor fee), the seller's profit (capped by regulation), and value-added tax. Importantly, by law this tax applies only to the making charge and the seller's profit, never to the raw gold value; a seller who calculates the tax on the whole invoice is breaking the rule. Melted gold, having no making charge, is usually priced closer to its intrinsic value.
Coins follow a different formula: a coin's intrinsic value (its pure gold weight multiplied by the world price and the dollar rate) plus whatever premium the market places on top. This premium is why a coin's price, unlike handmade jewelry, does not necessarily track the making charge and tax formula.
A Worked Example
Suppose (the figures below are entirely hypothetical, for practicing the formula only) the world gold price is $2,000 an ounce and the free market dollar is 50,000 tomans.
- Gram of 24 karat gold: (2,000 / 31.1035) x 50,000 is about 3,214,500 tomans
- Gram of 18 karat gold (intrinsic value): 3,214,500 x 0.75 is about 2,410,800 tomans
- Hypothetical making charge (7%): about 168,700 tomans
- Hypothetical seller profit (7% on intrinsic value plus making charge): about 180,500 tomans
- Value-added tax (10%, only on the making charge and profit): about 34,900 tomans
- Approximate final price per gram of handmade 18 karat gold: about 2,794,900 tomans
In this same hypothetical, melted gold of the same purity, having no making charge, trades close to that 2,410,800 toman figure, about 16 percent cheaper than its handmade equivalent.
In Iran's Market
On Saturday, July 11, 2026 (20 Tir 1405), the world gold price was near $4,121 an ounce and the free market dollar was near 178,500 tomans; 18 karat gold traded around 17,506,000 tomans a gram that day. The Emami coin traded around 177 million tomans, the Bahar Azadi around 173 million tomans, the half coin around 93 million tomans, the quarter coin around 53.4 million tomans, and the gram coin around 26.5 million tomans; the Emami coin's premium that day was near 3.8 million tomans. These figures move daily and are only a snapshot, not a fixed rule; for live prices see Sahmino's coin price page and 18 karat gold price page.
Gold bullion in Iran also trades through auctions held by the Iran Currency and Gold Exchange Center, but for coins there are three legal, tax-exempt trading channels, covered in more detail in one of Sahmino's analyses.
Common Mistakes
A common mistake is pricing a coin from its pure gold weight alone and ignoring the premium; on high demand days, that premium can be a significant share of the coin's price. A second mistake is comparing handmade gold and melted gold prices directly without accounting for the making charge; the two differ in price even at the same purity. A third mistake is assuming value-added tax is calculated on the full gold invoice; by regulation, it applies only to the making charge and the seller's profit.
Summary
18 karat gold, melted gold, and coins (in full, half, quarter, and one gram sizes) are all made from the same base material, but each has its own pricing formula: intrinsic value comes from the world ounce price and the dollar rate, handmade gold adds a making charge, profit, and tax, and coins carry a market premium on top of intrinsic value. The previous lesson covered Sejam and the trading code, the gateway into the Tehran Stock Exchange; to review Sahmino's other foundational lessons, visit the Learn page.
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