If the sun has a face, you are looking at a version older than 1933.
Four parts of the state emblem. The lion and the sun are old. The wreath and the crown are not, and knowing which is which lets you date any version you see.
What you seeA lion in profile, upright, sword raised in its forepaw.
What is knownIt was not always upright and did not always carry a sword. From the Safavid era through the early Qajars it stood on all fours and carried nothing. The armed, erect posture was ordered by decree in 1836, to stand for the military power of the state.
What you seeA disc rising behind the lion's back, rays extending.
What is knownThe oldest part of the whole design — the pairing began as astrology, the sun in the house of Leo, traceable back through Near Eastern to Babylonian practice. Note that it has no face. Through the Qajar period it was drawn with human features and understood as female; the face was removed in 1933.
What you seeLaurel and oak, meeting at a bow beneath the lion.
What is knownA twentieth-century addition. The wreath belongs to the modern state design rather than to the medieval device, which is why older examples of the Lion & Sun have nothing around them.
What you seeA crown set above the wreath.
What is knownThe Pahlavi crown, made new for the coronation of Reza Shah in 1926. Iranian crowns are commissioned by the house that wears them, so the crown on any emblem tells you which era you are looking at.
The tricolour carrying this emblem was adopted on 7 October 1907, altered in 1933, and relinquished in 1979. If the sun has a face, you are looking at a version older than 1933.
