500 Rials - Mohammad Rezā Pahlavī

Bank Melli Iran had relied on British printers since the bank's founding in 1928, and Harrison & Sons' contract for this series continued that arrangement through the early years of Mohammad Reza Shah's reign — a politically loaded period given Britain's dominant role in Iranian oil affairs. The Anglo-Iranian Oil Company dispute was building toward its 1951 peak precisely as these notes were in circulation, which gives the Harrison imprint a certain irony.

Pick 52 is the first high-denomination series to carry the new Shah's portrait following his father Reza Shah's forced abdication in 1941. The watermark is the sole security feature — modest for a 500-rial note at this value level.