This note carries one of the more awkward production histories in modern Iranian currency. The Islamic Republic, having come to power on explicitly anti-Western principles, continued using Thomas De La Rue in London to print its banknotes well into the early 1980s — a pragmatic concession to the reality that no domestic facility could meet the volume or security standards required. The plates themselves were inherited from the late Pahlavi-era contract, retooled for revolutionary imagery.
Sanctions and political pressure eventually ended the De La Rue relationship, pushing Iran toward other suppliers. This issue sits at that transition.
This note carries one of the more awkward production histories in modern Iranian currency. The Islamic Republic, having come to power on explicitly anti-Western principles, continued using Thomas De La Rue in London to print its banknotes well into the early 1980s — a pragmatic concession to the reality that no domestic facility could meet the volume or security standards required. The plates themselves were inherited from the late Pahlavi-era contract, retooled for revolutionary imagery.
Sanctions and political pressure eventually ended the De La Rue relationship, pushing Iran toward other suppliers. This issue sits at that transition.