Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
500 Rials - Rezā Pahlavī 1st. portrait
| Issuer | Bank Melli Iran |
|---|---|
| Year | 1932 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Blue on multicolour underprint. At left, a forward-facing portrait of Reza Shah Pahlavi in military uniform with high-crowned cap; at centre-right, a vignette of Mount Damavand. The composition is framed throughout by intricate guilloche borders and arabesque ornamental elements. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | بانک ملی ایران پانصد ریال (Translation: Bank Melli Iran Five Hundred Rials) |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Bank Melli Iran was established by act of parliament in 1928, and the early note series issued under Reza Shah was a deliberate assertion of centralized financial control — the country had previously relied on the Imperial Bank of Persia, a British-chartered institution, to issue currency. These first high-denomination notes were produced by the American Bank Note Company in New York rather than any European firm, a pointed departure from the colonial-era arrangements that had kept Iranian monetary affairs under foreign influence.
Pick 23 is among the rarest of the early Bank Melli issues. The 500 Rial denomination saw limited genuine circulation given its value relative to prevailing wages, and surviving examples in any grade are genuinely scarce.