Iran Guaranteed Cheques

The Banknote-like Guaranteed Cheques of Bank Melli

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the country found itself in an awkward monetary moment. Prices were rising quickly, but the Central Bank had not yet issued very high-denomination banknotes. Introducing new notes was not just a technical matter of design and printing; it carried political weight. Large denominations are read by the public as an admission that "inflation has become permanent". For that reason, approvals were cautious and often slow, involving both the central bank and Parliament, where there was reluctance to visibly normalize inflation by putting million-rial figures into everyday wallets.

Guaranteed cheques offered a quieter workaround. Issued by Bank Melli Iran and other banks, they were classified as banking instruments rather than legal-tender banknotes. This distinction mattered. A cheque could be framed as a practical tool for moving large sums—temporary, transactional, and reversible—rather than as a public statement about the currency itself. Designing them was not necessarily faster than engraving banknotes, but they required far fewer political approvals and avoided the symbolic moment of announcing a new denomination to the public. In practice, they filled the gap that official banknotes had not yet crossed.

For people on the ground, the experience was simple. A Bank Melli guaranteed cheque could be withdrawn from a branch and passed directly from hand to hand to pay for a car, settle a wholesale deal, or close a property transaction. As long as the cheque kept circulating, it usually remained unpunched and unstamped, aside from signatures or handwritten notes. The familiar holes, cancellation stamps, and bank markings typically appeared only at the end of its life, when someone finally deposited it, redeemed it for cash, or when banks cleared and retired it internally. At that point it was marked to prevent reuse, then normally destroyed—one reason surviving examples are so scarce today.

Group VII guaranteed cheques (G.VII.1–G.VII.5) belong to this mature phase, issued between Islamic years 1381–1383 (2002–2004). By then the format had been refined: smaller size, purple serial numbers, updated 200-rial stamp-duty marks, and increasingly sophisticated security features including multiple watermarks, security threads, and ultraviolet elements. Their denominations—from 200,000 to 5,000,000 rials—capture a moment when everyday economic life had already outgrown the official banknote structure, and the banking system quietly improvised a solution. For collectors, the wear, punches, and stamps are not flaws but evidence: these cheques were handled, trusted, and used as money until the moment they finally returned to the banking system. 

Iran Cheques and Melli Cheques

At World Money Store we also carry Iran cheques circulated from other banks like Bank Mellat in various denominations including the rarely seen 2,000,000 rials.

There were numerous series of these Iran Cheques, with a color for each denomination, and design which looked almost identical across the various banks that issued them. 

A similar instrument was issued by Bank Melli only, called a Melli Cheque which used the same color scheme and scheme for encoding the series, bank and denomination that Iran Cheques used.

The designs varied slightly across the different series, which can be identified by the first three digits in the MICR row at the bottom left of the cheque.

Starting in 2008, the Iran Cheques would all be issued only by the Central Bank of Iran, from which point the Pick catalog lists them as banknotes.

 


500,000 rial cheque issued by Bank Mellat

Identifying Bank and Series on an early Iran Cheque or Melli Cheque

The series and bank of issuance for Melli Cheques and the multibank Iran cheques can be identified by the first six numbers of the MICR line (the line printed at the bottom of the cheque towards the left). 

Note that this does not apply to

  • Bank Melli Griffin series which bears serial numbers and no MICR line
  • Iran Cheques since 2008 which are issued by the Central Bank of Iran

Position 1, 2, 3: cheque series

  • Griffin series: none (no MICR line)
  • Iran Cheque 2nd Issue: 112
  • Melli Cheque 116

Positions 4 and 5: bank

Position 6: denomination

  • 0 — 200,000 rials
  • 1 — 500,000 rials
  • 2 — 1,000,000 rials
  • 3 — 2,000,000 rials
  • 4 — 5,000,000 rials

Browse Iranian Banknotes and Cheques for Sale

Resources