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100 Rials = 1 Pahlevi
| Issuer | Bank Melli Iran |
|---|---|
| Year | 1935 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Rial (1932-date) |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | بانک ملی ایران صد ریال بانک ملی ایران نقش، طبع و ملکیت بانک ملی ایران |
| Reverse description | The reverse is rendered in olive-brown and green tones with a geometric guilloche border. A large landscape vignette occupying the left and centre of the note depicts a ruined fortress set against mountainous terrain under an open sky, printed with fine intaglio detail. At upper centre, the bilingual bank title 'BANQUE MELLIE IRAN' in Latin script and its Persian equivalent appear above the oval overprint 'UN PAHLEVI'. To the right, an intaglio vignette within a wreath frame shows the imperial Iranian lion-and-sun emblem. Denomination numerals '100' and the word 'RIALS' appear in all four corners, and a French-language legal warning is printed in small letterpress text along the lower margin. |
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| Comments |
Bank Melli Iran was established in 1928 as part of Reza Shah's broader program to dismantle the British-controlled Imperial Bank of Persia's note-issuing monopoly. This note belongs to the earliest years of that transition — Iran had only formally taken full control of currency issuance a few years prior, and De La Rue's London contract was a practical concession to the reality that Iran lacked domestic printing infrastructure capable of producing secure banknotes.
The dual denomination — Rials and Pahlevis — reflects the monetary reform of 1932, which replaced the Qran with the Rial at a rate of 1 Rial per 10 Qrans. The Pahlevi unit, equal to 100 Rials, was named directly for the ruling dynasty and used primarily as an accounting denomination rather than a distinct coin or note series in its own right.