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20 Rials - Rezā Pahlavī 3rd. portrait, French text on reverse
| Issuer | Bank Melli Iran |
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| Year | 1937-1941 |
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| Printer | De La Rue (Thomas de la Rue; Thomas De La Rue & Co.; TDLR), London, United Kingdom (1821-date) |
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| Obverse description | Red-orange ink on multicolour underprint. Three-quarter-face portrait of Shah Reza Pahlavi without cap at right, with ruins of the Tachara Palace at Persepolis occupying the centre vignette. Guilloche patterning frames the composition, with Persian inscriptions and the Bank Melli Iran title integrated into the design. |
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| Obverse lettering | تصویر نیم رخ رضا شاه بیست ریال شیر و خورشید ۱۳۱۶ (Translation: Bank Melli Iran Twenty Rials 1316) |
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| Comments |
Bank Melli Iran was established in 1927 to replace the British-controlled Imperial Bank of Persia as the country's note-issuing authority — a deliberate assertion of financial independence that took nearly a decade to fully execute in terms of note design and international printing contracts. De La Rue in London produced this series, which carried French text on the reverse as a concession to international commercial convention, French then functioning as the dominant language of regional trade and diplomacy across the Middle East.
The French-reverse format was dropped in subsequent issues, making this transitional series a fairly narrow window of production — roughly four years before wartime occupation reshuffled Iranian monetary administration entirely.