In which bank was the first Iranian banknote printed?

The history of the printing of escans in Iran goes back to the 7th century of Hijri – 672 AD – and to the period of Mughal ilkhanate rule in Iran. Apparently, at that point in time, the treasury reserves of Gikhatu, the fifth Mughal king and brother of Arghun Shah Mughal, were reduced to a minimum, and the king and his minister, Khwaja Sadr al-Din Ahmad Khalidi Zanjani, nicknamed Sadr Jahan, through his advisor Izz al-Din Muzafar, from the existence of paper money called “Chow” that years ago in The land of China had been produced and printed, they were informed.

Sadr Jahan, with the advice of Pulad Chingsang, the ambassador of the court of Khanbalegh city – Beijing – in Iran, printed chao paper money and opened a place called chavkhaneh in the important cities of Iran and forced people to exchange paper money for gold and silver coins. to receive, which of course met with their resistance.

The people in Tabriz rioted in protest against this action of the Mughal Shah, and the paper money of Chow fell some time later.

Banknotes in Iran

500 years after the nationwide opposition of the people of Iran and the failure of printing paper money in Iran “Skans” in 1176 AD, during the reign of Fath Ali, the second Qajar king, entered the monetary exchange cycle of our country, and from the very beginning, gold and silver as the backing of banknotes, the basis of calculations It was considered the treasury of the kings.

The history of banknote issuance in Iran is divided into three periods: 1268 to 1309, 1309 to 1339, and 1339 until now.

first round

During this period of the British Empire, a bank was established under the name Bank Shahi of Iran, based on the signing of a charter with the court of Naser al-Din Shah in 1268. This bank took over the monopoly of minting coins and printing and issuing banknotes. Before the establishment of this bank, the common currency of Iran was gold and silver coins.

This bank was responsible for printing and issuing Iranian banknotes in all the years of the rule of Naser al-Din and Mozaffar al-Din Shah Qajar.

The central building of this bank in Tehran was located in a building on the eastern side of Imam Khomeini Square – Topkhaneh Square. The building of this bank was later handed over to the first non-governmental bank of Iran.

Shahi Bank had the monopoly of printing and publishing Iranian banknotes for 40 years. Also, this bank was in charge of the central bank of Iran from 1890 to 1930.

The first Bank Shahi banknotes were printed in England in 1269 and distributed in Iran. On these banknotes were printed and distributed the words Bank Shahshahi of Iran, the emblem of the lion and the sun, and the image of Naseruddin Shah. With the popularity of bank notes in this period, some abusers attempted to forge them, therefore, to control this situation, Shahi Bank printed and sent its second set of bank notes to Iran in 1303. Shahi Bank distributed these banknotes with lion and sun motifs.

These banknotes were issued with numbers 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 tomans and with the image of Naseruddin Shah.

Despite the fact that during the period of Mohammad Ali Shah Qajar and in Azar 1286, continuous efforts were made by some money changers, marketers and politicians of the country to establish the National Bank of Iran, but the secret agreement of St. Petersburg known as the 1907 agreement between the Russian and British empires and the division of Iran between the two The superpower and then the start of the First World War prevented the establishment of this bank, but after the employment of Arthur Millspo, an American lawyer and financial expert in Iran, National Bank was established on May 14, 1306.

Second period

In the second period, the National Council removed the authority to print and issue banknotes from the Shahi Bank and handed it over to the Melli Bank of Iran. On June 6, 1309, the National Assembly approved the law revoking the permission to print and issue banknotes from Shahi Bank. During this decision, Iran was forced to pay 200,000 damages to the then British government. Based on this law, the government of Iran paid 200,000 lira in cash to Shahi Bank in London in exchange for this privilege, and Shahi Bank was obliged to pay the price of its printed banknotes to the Iranian government within one year.

The government at that time canceled the privilege of printing Iranian banknotes, which had been exclusively in the hands of England until then, and paid 200,000 liras to the British for this action. He also allowed the British to keep their central bank branch in Tehran and its branches in the provinces.

With Melli Bank being replaced by Shahshahi Bank and giving the monopoly of printing and issuing banknotes to this bank, the first banknotes printed by this bank were published on April 1, 1311, with the image of Reza Shah and the denominations of 5, 10, 20, 100 and 500 Rials.

Following the formulation of the Law on the Reform of the Iranian Currency in 1310, each rial was equal to 100 dinars and was chosen as the official currency of our country, and from this date onwards, the Koran and the Toman were abolished.

In 1314, the National Bank of Iran printed and published its second series of banknotes with a slightly larger image of Reza Shah, and from this date onwards, the 1000 rial banknote was also added to the list of common Iranian banknotes.

In the years 1315 and 1317, new banknotes with the image of Reza Shah without a hat were printed and published. Also, for the first and last time, on the 100, 500 and 1000 Riyal banknotes, the equivalent of the gold value of the banknote “Each 100 Riyal equals one Pahlavi” was written.

In this collection, 10,000 Riyal banknotes were also printed, but due to their large amount, they were not included in the country’s monetary exchange.

The year after Reza Shah was expelled from Iran by the British in Shahrivar 1320 and his son Mohammad Reza ascended the throne, the first series of Iranian banknotes with the likeness of Mohammad Reza Shah with figures of 5, 10, 20 and 100 rials were printed and sent to the country’s money market. In 1325, 50, 500 and 1000 Rial banknotes were printed and distributed with his face.

The 1330s was the peak of the establishment and increase in the number of private banks. This problem made the monetary system of the country more complicated and expanded, and it became difficult for the National Bank of Iran to separate the duties of commercial banks from non-commercial banks, for this reason, the Ministry of Economy decided to establish the Central Bank of Iran in August 1339.

Third period

In the third period, which coincided with the establishment of the Central Bank of Iran, the authority to print and issue banknotes in Iran was taken away from the National Bank of Iran and entrusted to this bank. The monopoly of banknote printing in this period was still with the Central Bank of England.

The first banknotes printed in the Central Bank were printed and published in 1340 with figures of 10 and 20 Riyals, signed by the Minister of Finance and the Director General of the Central Bank. The background of the banknotes printed in this bank was Taj, Lion and Sun or the image of Mohammad Reza Shah.

5,000 Riyal banknotes of Central Bank were printed and published in Pakistan in 1344 with the signature of the Minister of Finance and the Governor General of Central Bank. The biggest drawback of this banknote was that the color of the banknote was washed off with water. This big defect caused the rapid exit of this banknote from the country’s monetary and banking exchanges.

The last set of banknotes printed during the Pahlavi era was signed by the son of Mohammad Yeganeh, the Minister of Economy and Finance, and Yusuf Khoshkish, the head of the Central Bank.

Islamic revolution period

A few months after the success of the Islamic movement and the victory of the Islamic revolution in Iran, the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran printed and issued its first series of banknotes. In these banknotes, the image of Mohammad Reza Shah was replaced with another design, and the lion and the sun were first printed on the bottom, and then the temporary emblem of the Islamic Republic was printed.

The new series of Central Bank banknotes was signed by Ali Ardalan, the Minister of Economy and Finance, and Mohammad Ali Molavi, the General Director of the Central Bank. In this series of banknotes, the image of Imam Reza’s court was published instead of the image of the Shah and the temporary emblem of the Islamic Republic that was printed on the bottom.

In the series of banknotes that were printed and published in 1360, the new official coat of arms of the Islamic Republic of Iran was printed and published.

In 1366, the image of Mohammad Hossein Fahmideh replaced the previous character.

Since 1372, for the first time, the image of Grand Ayatollah Seyed Ruhollah Mousavi Khomeini was printed on 10,000 Rial banknotes, and the bottom of the banknotes was also the same image.

Currently, in Iran, banknotes with numbers of 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 thousand rials are printed and distributed. These banknotes with different colors are printed and distributed by banking specialists of our country. Imam Khomeini’s image is on all these banknotes

check money

For many years, with the increase in the inflation rate and the decrease in the parity value of the national currency, printing and issuing various types of bank checks have become common in the country. Bank checks with the name “Iranchek” have been distributed in the money and banking market. Iran checks are printed with the amount of 500 thousand and one million rials. In 2005, the number of banknotes in circulation in the country was 7.3 billion and 100 per capita for every Iranian.

An average of 120 billion Rials per year is spent to collect, replace and destroy worn out banknotes.

With the development and expansion of the electronic banking system and the spread of electronic bank cards, bank notes have lost their previous place in the economic system and financial transactions.

References:

The site of Abdullah Shahbazi, historian

Veskanian, G. A. , Russian to Farsi culture, Tehran, 1372

Moshiri, Mahshid, Dictionary of European words in Farsi, Tehran: Alborz Publishing House, 1371