---
title: Bank Melli Iran 500 rials (five Pahlavi) note with Reza Shah, 1317 (1938)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bank-melli-500-rials-reza-shah-1938/
description: A 500-rial note of Bank Melli Iran. The right half is a uniformed profile portrait of Reza Shah; the centre is the crowned Lion and Sun emblem; both…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![Bank Melli Iran 500 rials (five Pahlavi) note with Reza Shah, 1317 (1938)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/bank-melli-500-rials-reza-shah-1938.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/bank-melli-500-rials-reza-shah-1938.jpg)

# Bank Melli Iran 500 rials (five Pahlavi) note with Reza Shah, 1317 (1938)

A 500-rial note of Bank Melli Iran. The right half is a uniformed profile portrait of Reza Shah; the centre is the crowned Lion and Sun emblem; both margins hold a tall guardsman in ancient-Persian dress. Everyday money carries the ruler's face, the monarchy's emblem and ancient Persian imagery, attaching their authority to an object every user handles.

## Text on the object

Original (Persian) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
بانک ملی ایران
پانصد ریال
فروردین ۱۳۱۷
پنج پهلوی
بازرس دولت
مدیر کل

هر کس اسکناس بانک ملی ایران را جعل کند یا با علم به جعل دارد و یا استعمال یا داخل مملکت نماید طبق ماده ۹۸ قانون مجازات عمومی بحبس با اعمال شاقه تا پانزده سال محکوم خواهد شد

500 (corners)
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
Bank Melli Iran
Five hundred rials
Farvardin 1317
Five Pahlavi
State Inspector
Director General

Whoever forges the banknotes of Bank Melli Iran, or knowing them to be forged holds, or uses, or brings them into the country, shall, under article 98 of the general penal law, be sentenced to imprisonment with hard labour for up to fifteen years

500 (corners)
```

Printed lines read from the image; the boxed legal warning is in small type and is the best reading, with word boundaries uncertain. English is a literal machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader. Serial numbers and signatures omitted.

[← Goebbels at the 'Entartete Kunst' exhibition, February 1938](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/goebbels-entartete-kunst-exhibition-1938/) [Title card from a captured Japanese newsreel: the Emperor commends the Xuzhou campaign (May 1938) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/xuzhou-imperial-commendation-newsreel-card-1938/)

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