500 000 Rials

The 500,000 Rial note was introduced in 2008 largely as a practical response to cumulative inflation that had been eroding purchasing power since the 1979 revolution — by the time this denomination appeared, a 1,000 Rial note had become nearly worthless in daily transactions. It was the highest denomination Iran had issued to that point, which itself signals the scale of the problem.

International sanctions intensified considerably during this note's production window, particularly after 2012, complicating Iran's access to specialist security paper and printing inputs typically sourced from European suppliers.