10 000 Rials Imam Reza shrine

The Imam Reza shrine series was among the first post-revolutionary Iranian paper issues to deliberately excise all imagery associated with the Pahlavi monarchy. Thomas De La Rue had printed banknotes for the Imperial Government of Iran for decades; after the 1979 revolution, the new Islamic Republic initially continued using De La Rue's services while overprinting or redesigning existing stock — an awkward transitional arrangement that reflects how rapidly the political situation had outpaced the logistics of currency production.

Pick 131 belongs to that early consolidation period, when the Bank Markazi was simultaneously dismantling the old monetary visual vocabulary and establishing a new one rooted in religious architecture rather than dynastic symbolism.