500 Rials Mohammad Rezā Pahlavī

The P#104 500 Rials series was issued during the final years of the Pahlavi government, a period of enormous oil revenue and equally enormous political instability. Bank Markazi Iran had been established in 1960 specifically to replace the older Bank Melli as the sole currency-issuing authority, and by the mid-1970s its notes had settled into a consistent typographic and printing relationship with Thomas De La Rue that dated back years.

The series was rendered obsolete almost immediately after the 1979 revolution, when overprinted and entirely new issues displaced Pahlavi-era notes rapidly. Unissued remainders exist in quantity, which suppresses value at the higher grade levels.