50 Rials - Mohammad Rezā Pahlavī

Bank Melli Iran had used Waterlow & Sons for earlier issues, but the postwar transition to Harrison & Sons brought a notably different aesthetic to the series — Harrison's intaglio work was finer and their security watermarking more consistent, qualities that mattered to a government trying to stabilize confidence in paper currency after wartime occupation had badly damaged public trust in the rial.

Iran had been jointly occupied by British and Soviet forces from 1941 through 1946, and the inflationary pressure of that period made this issue's arrival significant. The British finally withdrew in March 1946; Soviet forces did not leave the north until May.