Iraq's 1973 note series came out during the early years of Ba'athist consolidation, when the government was nationalizing the Iraq Petroleum Company and flush with revenues that would explode further after the 1973 oil embargo. Thomas De La Rue handled most of Iraq's printing requirements through this period — a relationship that would become politically awkward as the decade progressed and Iraq moved to diversify its foreign dependencies.
The watermark on this series has been reported inconsistently positioned across known examples, likely reflecting production tolerances at the De La Rue facility rather than any deliberate variant.
Iraq's 1973 note series came out during the early years of Ba'athist consolidation, when the government was nationalizing the Iraq Petroleum Company and flush with revenues that would explode further after the 1973 oil embargo. Thomas De La Rue handled most of Iraq's printing requirements through this period — a relationship that would become politically awkward as the decade progressed and Iraq moved to diversify its foreign dependencies.
The watermark on this series has been reported inconsistently positioned across known examples, likely reflecting production tolerances at the De La Rue facility rather than any deliberate variant.