Middle East NE P-85a 50 Rials ND(1969) UNC—Green—Dark Panel—Shah—Dam

A note from the final decade of imperial Iran — the Shah in full Army uniform on the front, a feat of mid-century engineering on the back, and a regime that would be gone within ten years. The "Dark Panel" series (P#84–89A) is named for the contrasting ornamental band framing the bank name at top center, a design detail that sets these notes apart from the earlier Light Panel issues. This is the 50 Rials, signed by President Mahdi Samiyee and Minister of Economic Affairs Jamshid Amoozgar.

Front

• Colors:
  • Background: orange and blue underprint
  • Dominant engraving: green
• Seventh portrait of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi in Army uniform at right
• Geometric design at center
• Dark ornamental panel bearing bank name بانک مرکزی ایران (Bank Markazi Iran) at top center
• Denomination پنجاه ریال (Fifty Rials) in Persian
• Script: Persian
• Signatures: Mahdi Samiyee, President; Jamshid Amoozgar, Minister of Economic Affairs

Back

• Colors:
  • Background: pink
  • Dominant engraving: green
• Koohrang Dam and tunnel — a major water transfer project in the Zagros Mountains, completed in the 1950s
• Bilingual inscription: BANK MARKAZI IRAN / RIALS 50 in Latin; Persian equivalent
• Scripts: Latin and Persian

Other Characteristics

• Varieties:
  • P-85a — ND (1969), signatures: Samiyee & Amoozgar — this note
  • P-85b — ND (1971), signatures: Farmanfarmaian & Amoozgar
• Catalog numbers: P-85a; TBB B215; Numista N#204987
• Watermark: Portrait of Shah Pahlavi
• Composition: Paper
• Size: 142 × 71 mm
• Issuing entity: Central Bank of Iran (Bank Markazi Iran)
• Printer: Harrison & Sons Limited, High Wycombe (1839–1997)
• Demonetized: 11 February 1979 — the date of the Islamic Revolution
• Signatures: Mahdi Samiyee, President; Jamshid Amoozgar, Minister of Economic Affairs
• Currency: Second Rial (1932–date)
• Official language(s): Persian (Farsi)

About Iran

• Origin of name: from the Avestan Airyana, meaning "Land of the Aryans" — the name Iran replaced Persia in international usage in 1935 at the request of Reza Shah
• Capital: Tehran (city pop. ~9.5 million; metro ~16 million)
  • Origin of name: from the Persian Tah Rān, meaning "warm slope" or "lower slope" — referring to its position on the southern foothills of the Alborz Mountains
• Population: ~88 million (UN 2023) — similar to Germany or Texas and California combined
• Area: 1,648,195 km² / 636,372 mi² — similar to Alaska or Western Europe
• GDP per capita at PPP: ~$16,000 (est.) — significantly suppressed by decades of sanctions
• Main exports: crude oil, natural gas, petrochemicals, pistachios, saffron, carpets
• Borders: Turkey, Iraq, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan; Caspian Sea (north), Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman (south)
• Official/spoken language: Persian (Farsi) — official; also Azerbaijani, Kurdish, Arabic, Balochi, and others spoken regionally
• Ethnicities: Persians (~61%), Azerbaijanis (~16%), Kurds (~10%), Lors (~6%), Arabs (~2%), others
• Memberships: United Nations (1945, founding member); OPEC (1960, founding member); Non-Aligned Movement (1979); Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (2023)
• Sovereignty:
  • Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BC) — first Persian empire; conquered by Alexander the Great
  • Parthian and Sasanian empires (247 BC–651 AD)
  • Arab-Islamic conquest (651) — Islam replaces Zoroastrianism as the dominant religion
  • Various dynasties: Safavids (1501–1736), Afsharids, Zands, Qajars (1789–1925)
  • Pahlavi dynasty (1925–1979) — modernizing monarchy; heavy British and US influence
  • Islamic Revolution (1979) — Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi overthrown in 1979. Ayatollah Khomeini establishes the Islamic Republic.
  • Islamic Republic of Iran (1979–date) — this note issued during the preceding Pahlavi period

Iran Unfiltered

• Iran sits on the world’s second-largest proven natural gas reserves and fourth-largest oil reserves. Sanctions have kept it largely locked out of global energy markets for over four decades.
• Saffron. Iran produces over 90% of the world’s supply. The spice worth more by weight than gold, harvested by hand, petal by petal, in the fields of Khorasan.
• The Persian carpet is not decorative. It is a map, a prayer, a dowry, a savings account. Families have stored wealth in carpets for centuries — more reliable than banks, more portable than land.
• Iran has one of the highest rates of nose jobs per capita in the world. Rhinoplasty is a status symbol. Bandages are worn publicly, sometimes even after the swelling has gone.
• The literacy rate in 1979 was around 35%. Today it is over 88%. The Islamic Republic, whatever else it has done, built schools.
• Tehran sits on at least five major fault lines. A major earthquake in the capital is not a question of if, but when. The city of 16 million has no evacuation plan.

The Shah in Uniform

Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi came to power in 1941 when the British and Soviets forced his father to abdicate. He was 21. For the next 38 years he ruled Iran — surviving a CIA-backed coup that restored him to power in 1953 after a brief exile, launching the White Revolution modernization program in 1963, and presiding over an oil boom that made Iran one of the wealthiest nations in the developing world.

The seventh portrait — the one on this note — shows him in full military dress. It is the image of a man at the height of his power. By 1979, he would be gone.

The Dam on the Back

The Koohrang Dam and tunnel in the Zagros Mountains was one of the signature infrastructure projects of mid-century Iran — diverting water from the Koohrang River westward to the Zayandeh River basin to irrigate the Isfahan plain. Putting it on a banknote was a deliberate statement: the Pahlavi regime wanted Iranians to see modernization every time they reached into their pockets.

The dam still operates today, now under the Islamic Republic, serving the same agricultural purpose it was built for.

Printed by Harrison & Sons

Harrison & Sons of High Wycombe printed banknotes and postage stamps for governments across the British Commonwealth and beyond for over 150 years. Their work on Iranian notes during the Pahlavi era is considered among the finest intaglio printing of the period — deep, tactile engraving with exceptional color registration. The firm closed in 1997.

This note is a Harrison production at its best: the green engraving crisp against the orange and blue underprint, the Shah’s portrait rendered with the kind of detail that only hand-engraved intaglio achieves.

Own This Note from the Last Years of Imperial Iran

This is a UNC (Uncirculated) example of P-85a, signed by President Mahdi Samiyee and Minister Jamshid Amoozgar — the more common and more collectible of the two signature varieties. The Dark Panel series is actively collected as a complete set (P#84–89A), and the 50 Rials is a key denomination.

It ships in a protective sleeve. A note from a country mid-transformation — the Shah still on the front, the revolution still a decade away, the dam still being built.