5000 Rials Mohammad Rezā Pahlavī

The 5,000 rial denomination was the highest value note in Iranian circulation during the final years of the Pahlavi regime, and its purchasing power made it effectively a wholesale instrument — seen in banks and major transactions, rarely handled in daily commerce. De La Rue had maintained a longstanding relationship with Bank Markazi through the 1960s and 1970s, producing much of the high-value end of the series.

Three signature combinations across this short issue reflect genuine institutional turbulence: Mehdi Bazargan, who appears on the 1978 pairing, would within months become the first Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic — an almost vertiginous transition captured in the ink of a monarchist banknote.