100 Rials

Pick 62 was issued under the early reign of Mohammad Reza Shah, at a moment when Iranian oil politics were rapidly destabilizing. The nationalization crisis was already building — AIOC would be expelled the following year — and the government was printing currency against increasingly strained foreign reserves. Bank Melli, the state bank since 1928, had no independent monetary policy to speak of; note issuance was directly subordinate to treasury pressure.

The watermark security on this series is relatively simple by contemporary international standards, reflecting the printing technology available to Iran's domestic production at the time.