Middle East NE Cheque/Check (Cancelled)—Type 112191—500000 Rials—Pink

The most splendid city in the ancient world: Persepolis

Persepolis (Takht-e Jamshid), the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire, founded by Darius I around 518 BC in what is now Fars Province, Iran. The complex served as the empire's ritual and administrative heart for over two centuries before Alexander the Great burned it to the ground in 330 BC — an act still debated as revenge, accident, or deliberate policy. Inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979.

The depicted ruins include the Apadana Palace, the grandest audience hall at Persepolis, built by Darius I and completed under Xerxes I. It measured roughly 60 × 60 meters and was supported by 72 columns — 13 of which still stand — each rising approximately 20 meters. The Apadana was where delegations from across the empire's 23 subject nations came to pay tribute; its famous processional staircases are lined with some of the finest surviving bas-reliefs of the ancient world.

Among those reliefs are depictions of the Immortals — the elite 10,000-strong royal guard of the Achaemenid kings, so named because their number was kept constant: every fallen soldier was immediately replaced. Shown in profile, carrying spears and wicker shields, dressed in elaborate robes, they march in disciplined procession — equal parts military force and imperial theater. These are among the most iconic images of the ancient Persian world, and their likeness has appeared on Iranian currency for decades.

Persepolis was the undisputed Gold Standard of the ancient world:

1. The "Jewel Box" Materials

Most ancient cities were built of local brick or marble. Persepolis was built using dark gray limestone that was polished until it shone like black mirror or obsidian.

• The Wow Factor: Imagine an entire city that didn't just look like stone—it looked like a polished gemstone.
• The Contrast: While the Parthenon in Athens was colorful and elegant, Persepolis was "The Black Palace," accented with actual gold leaf, silver, and lapis lazuli inlaid directly into the stone carvings.

2. Impossible Engineering (The Terrace)

Persepolis wasn't built on a hill; it was built on a man-made mountain.

• The Scale: Engineers leveled a 1.3-million-square-foot platform (about 30 acres) halfway up a mountain. They moved stones weighing up to 45 tons with such precision that you couldn't fit a knife blade between the joints—and they did this without mortar.
• The Comparison: This was a massive architectural "stage" designed to make the King of Kings appear like a god looking down on the world. No other city in Mesopotamia or Greece had this level of artificial topographical ego.

3. The "United Nations" of Art

Persepolis is the only city in history that was a stylistic "Greatest Hits" of the entire planet.

• The Synergy: The Persians didn't just use Persian style. They took the fluted columns of the Greeks, the winged bulls of the Assyrians, the temple layouts of the Egyptians, and the cedar wood of Lebanon.
• The Uniqueness: It was the world's first Cosmopolitan Architecture. It was a physical manifestation of a global empire. When a diplomat arrived at the "Gate of All Nations," they saw their own culture's best art reflected back at them, but on a scale ten times larger than they had at home.

4. Splendor Without Slaves

Persepolis was a city of dignity.

• The Truth: Unlike the Pyramids or the Roman Colosseum, we have the clay tablets to prove the workers were paid. There were even "maternity benefits" for women workers.
• The Result: The art at Persepolis feels "peaceful" and "refined"—it’s a celebration of a functioning, wealthy civilization rather than a monument to a tyrant's whip.

About Iran Cheques Issued by Commercial Banks

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Iran 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.

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.

Identifying Bank and Series on an 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

• 12 Bank Mellat
• 13 Bank Refah
• 14 Bank Maskan
• 15 Bank Sepah
• 16 Bank Keshavarzi (Agricultural Bank)
• 17 Bank Melli Iran
• 18 Bank Tejarat
• 19 Bank Saderat Iran
• 20 Bank Tuseh-e Saderat e Iran

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

The Color Palette

The color palette is much more sophisticated than it appears at first glance. It utilizes a "warm-spectrum" security printing technique, blending various shades of red and purple to create a complex, anti-counterfeit background.

Primary Color: Magenta & Rose

The dominant theme is a vibrant Magenta-Rose.

• The Border: A solid, deep magenta frame surrounds the note.
• The "500000" Value: On the left, the large vertical "500000" is printed in a bold, saturated rose-red that stands out against the lighter background.

Secondary Color: Dusty Violet & Lavender

Interwoven with the magenta are cooler, muted purple tones.

• Guilloché Patterns: If you look at the circular, "flower-like" patterns behind the Persepolis columns, they transition from a soft lavender to a pale pink.
• Micro-shading: The sky area above the ruins uses a very fine violet "screen" (tiny dots or lines) to create a sense of depth without using a solid block of color.

Tertiary Color: Slate Gray & Earthy Taupe

These colors are used specifically for the "intaglio" (raised ink) style printing of the architectural elements.

• Persepolis Ruins: The columns and the "Immortals" soldiers are printed in a Slate Gray with hints of Taupe. This gives the ancient stone a realistic, weathered look that contrasts sharply with the bright pink security paper.
• Text & Calligraphy: Most of the Persian text, including "Bank Melli Iran," is printed in a dark charcoal or deep slate to ensure legibility against the colorful background.

Security & Functional Colors

• Underprint Yellow/Cream: There is a very faint pale yellow or cream base tint in the center of the note. This is a security feature; if someone tries to use a chemical eraser to change the handwritten numbers on the back, this yellow tint will often change color or disappear, revealing the "wash."
• Overprint Ink (Stamps): * Blue: The date stamp (1387/2/31) is in a standard Cobalt Blue ink.Red: The handwritten signature and "tick" marks on the front and back are in a Bright Crimson felt-tip or ballpoint ink.