20 Cents USASTRATCOM NCO & EM Open Mess

Military scrip issued by the NCO and Enlisted Men's Open Mess at USASTRATCOM's Tehran facility — the United States Army Strategic Communications Command's presence in Iran during the Pahlavi era. These messes operated as semi-closed economic systems, using locally issued scrip to keep dollar currency off the Iranian black market and to restrict purchasing power to on-base establishments. The practical effect was a parallel micro-economy running alongside the official Military Payment Certificates used elsewhere in the region.

The wide date range reflects genuine uncertainty — documentation for individual mess scrip issues is sparse, and most were destroyed or discarded after the 1979 revolution ended the American military presence in Iran almost overnight.