When the Islamic Revolution swept the Shah's government from power in early 1979, the new authorities faced an immediate practical problem: millions of banknotes bearing the image of Mohammad Reza Shah were still in active circulation. The provisional solution was crude by design — existing De La Rue-printed stock was overprinted to obscure the royal portrait rather than waiting months for entirely new plates and paper to be produced.
Pick 116 represents the first type of that overprint, applied to what had been the standard pre-revolutionary 5000 Rial note. The urgency shows. This is a revolutionary stopgap, not a considered redesign.
When the Islamic Revolution swept the Shah's government from power in early 1979, the new authorities faced an immediate practical problem: millions of banknotes bearing the image of Mohammad Reza Shah were still in active circulation. The provisional solution was crude by design — existing De La Rue-printed stock was overprinted to obscure the royal portrait rather than waiting months for entirely new plates and paper to be produced.
Pick 116 represents the first type of that overprint, applied to what had been the standard pre-revolutionary 5000 Rial note. The urgency shows. This is a revolutionary stopgap, not a considered redesign.