This remarkable group of silver coins was discovered in 1934, near the town of Malayer some thirty miles to the south of Hamadan, the site of the Median and later Achaemenid capital of Ecbatana.

Apart from the coins found together in the foundations deposits of the Apadana at Persepolis, this is the only known hoard of silver coins from Iran deposited in the period of the Achaemenid Empire. Coinage was rarely used there at this time. Looking at the composition of the hoard it seems likely that this collection of money was formed at the eastern end of the Mediterranean, perhaps in Tyre or Sidon, and then travelled eastwards across Mesopotamia and perhaps then up the Khorasan road towards the capital at Ecbatana. From the dates of the Greek coins included in the hoard it is likely that it was buried in the period around 440–430 BC, but the reasons for burial of the hoard are unknown. The total value of the hoard represents perhaps four or five years pay for a manual worker. If this was the property of a private individual, he was wealthy beyond the dreams of many of his contemporaries.