100 Rials Type 2 Overprint

This note is a provisional issue born directly from the February 1979 revolution — the new Islamic government needed circulating currency immediately but lacked the time or infrastructure to commission entirely new designs. The solution was to overprint existing imperial-era De La Rue stock, effacing the Shah's portrait with a black geometric pattern. Two signature combinations exist under Pick 118 because the provisional government's own monetary appointments were still in flux during those first chaotic months.

The overprint series was always a stopgap. Dedicated Islamic Republic designs followed within a few years, making these transitional pieces a precise timestamp of institutional rupture.