5000 Rials Ruhollah Khomeini, 1st issue

The relationship between the Islamic Republic and Thomas De La Rue is one of the quieter ironies in modern banknote history. A British firm printing Iranian state currency decades after the revolution that explicitly rejected Western influence — the arrangement persisted because De La Rue's security printing capabilities were simply difficult to replace, and sanctions during much of this note's long print run complicated any transition. The six signature combinations across the P#145 series reflect genuine ministerial and gubernatorial turnover at the Central Bank between 1993 and 2009, not reprints or varieties issued for commemorative reasons.