Iranian rial

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Iranian rial ریال ایران (Persian)
20,000 rial banknote, reverse 10,000 rial banknote, obverse and reverse
ISO 4217 Code	IRR
User(s)	Iran
Inflation	15.8%
Source	The World Factbook, 2006 est.
Superunit
10	toman (unofficial)
Subunit
1/100	dinar
Symbol	﷼
Coins	50, 100, 250, 500 rials
Banknotes	100, 200, 500, 1000, 2000, 5000, 10 000, 20 000, 50 000 rials
Central bank	Bank Markazi Iran
Website	www.cbi.ir

The rial (ریال in Persian; ISO 4217 code IRR) is the currency of Iran. It is subdivided into 100 dinar but, because of the very low current value of the rial, no fraction of the rial is used in accounting.

Although not an official currency since 1932, the toman is frequently used to express amounts of money. It enjoys wide usage among Iranians today as an amount of ten rial. Most Iranians state the value of things in toman - not rial. In fact, prices are currently most commonly marked in toman, sometimes meaning 1000 or 1,000,000 toman (10,000 or 10,000,000 rial).

There is no official symbol for the currency but the Iranian standard ISIRI 820 defined a symbol for use on typewriters and the two Iranian standards ISIRI 2900 and ISIRI 3342 define a character code to be used for it. The Unicode Standard has a compatibility character defined for "RIAL SIGN" [﷼] at the position U+FDFC.

Contents 1 History 2 Value 3 Coins 3.1 First rial 3.2 Second rial 4 Banknotes 4.1 Cash cheques 5 See also 6 References

[edit] History

The rial was first introduced in 1798 as a coin worth 1250 dinar or one eighth of a toman. In 1825, the rial ceased to be issued, with the qiran of 1000 dinars (one tenth of a toman) being issued as part of a decimal system. The rial replaced the qiran at par in 1932, although it was divided into one hundred (new) dinars.

Prior to decimalisation of 1932, these coins and currencies were used, and some of these terms still have wide usage in Iranian languages and proverbs:^[1]

Old currency	In dinar	First issue
shahi	50 dinar	Samanid dynasty
mahmoudi (sannar)	100 dinar	Sultan Mahmoud
abbasi	200 dinar	Shah Abbas I
naderi (da-shahi)	500 dinar	Nadir Shah
qiran	1000 dinar	Fath Ali Shah (1825)
rial	1250 dinar	Fath Ali Shah (1798)
dozari	2000 dinar	Qajar dynasty
toman	10000 dinar	Ilkhanate

[edit] Value

In 1932, the exchange rate with the British pound was equal to that of the qiran, 1 pound = 59.75 qiran. This changed to 80.25 in 1936, 64.350 in 1939, 68.8 in 1940, 141 in 1941 and 129 in 1942. In 1945, Iran swiched to the U.S. dollar as the peg for its currency, with 1 dollar = 32.25 rial. The rate was changed to 1 dollar = 75.75 rial in 1957, a rate which was maintained until Iran did not follow the dollar's devaluation in 1973, leading to a new peg of 1 dollar = 68.725 rial. The peg to the U.S. dollar was dropped in 1975.

In 1979, 1 rial equaled to $0.0141. The value of Iran's currency has declined precipitously after the Islamic revolution.^[2]. Whereas on 15 March 1978, 71.46 rials equaled one U.S. dollar, in July 1999, 9430 rials amounted to one dollar. However, the value of rial has become more stable since 1999 as the economy of Iran has been growing rapidly and independently. (See Iran Currency Exchange Rate History: 1975 - 2006).

Until 2002, Iran’s exchange rate system was based on a multi-layered system, where state and para-state enterprises benefited from the preferred rate (1750 rial for $1) while the private sector had to pay the market rate (8000 rial for $1), hence creating an unhealthy competition environment. However, in March 2002, the multi-tiered system was replaced by a unified, market-driven exchange rate.

Exchange rates: rials per US dollar - 9,246.94 (2006), 8,964 (2005), 8,885 (2004), 8,193.89 (2003)

Pre-unification, rials per US dollar:

Market: 8,200 (2002), 8,050 (2001), 8,350 (2000)^[3]

Official: 6,906.96 (2002), 1,753.56 (2001), 1,764.43 (2000)^[4]

Because of the current low value of rial, and the fact that Iranians do not state the value of things in rial, redenomination or change of currency was first proposed in the late 1980s. The issue has re-emerged and been under discussion, as a consequence of issuing larger notes by the central bank. However, opponents of redenomination are wary of more inflation, resulting from psychological effects, and increase in velocity of money, leading to more instabilities in the economy of Iran.^[5][6]

[edit] Coins

[edit] First rial

Silver coins were issued in denominations of ⅛, ¼, ½ and 1 rial.

[edit] Second rial

The first coins of the second rial currency were in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10 and 25 dinar, ½, 1, 2 and 5 rial, with the ½ to 5 rial coins minted in silver. Gold coins denominated in pahlavi were also issued, initially valued at 100 rial. In 1944, the silver coinage was reduced in size, with the smallest silver coins being 1 rial pieces. This year also saw the cessation of minting of all denominations below 25 dinar. In 1945, silver 10 rial coins were introduced. In 1953, silver coins ceased to be minted, with the smallest denomination now 50 dinar. 20 rial coins were introduced in 1972.

After the Islamic Revolution, the coinage designs were changed to remove the Shah's effigy but the sizes and compositions were not immediately changed. 50 dinar coins were only minted in 1980 and 50 rial coins were introduced in 1981. In 1993, a new coinage was introduced with smaller 1, 5, 10 and 50 rial coins and new 100 rial pieces. 250 rial coins were introduced the following year. In 2004, the sizes of the 50, 100 and 250 rial coins were reduced and 500 rial coins were introduced.

Coins currently in circulation are 50, 100, 250 and 500 rial. The 5 and 10 rials are still legal tender but are not issued anymore.

[edit] Banknotes

In 1932, notes were issued by the "Bank Melli Iran" in denominations of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 and 500 rial. 1000 rial notes were introduced in 1935, followed by 200 rial notes in 1951 and 5000 and 10,000 rial in 1952. 5 rial notes were last issued in the 1940s, with 10 rial notes disappearing in the 1960s. In 1961, the Central Bank of Iran took over the issuance of paper money.

In 1979, after the Islamic revolution, Iranian banknotes featuring the Shah's face were counter-stamped with intricate designs to cover the Shah's face. The first regular issues of the Islamic Republic were in denominations of 100, 200, 500, 1000, 5000 and 10,000 rial. 2000 rial notes were introduced in 1986, with 20,000 rial notes added in 2003. Printing banknotes larger than 10,000 rials was first proposed in 1989, and in 1992 central bank asked for the government permission to print 20,000, 50,000 and 100,000 rial notes. This was not realized at that time, due to fears of inflation, and counterfeiting.^[5]

On 4 March 2007, it was announced that Iran would issue a 50,000 rial banknote with the subject being the Iranian nuclear energy program. The note was issued on 12 March.^[7][8][9] The note features a quote by Mohammed, translated as: "Even if science is at the Pleiades, some men from the land of Persia would attain it".^[10] The note also features the English term: "Persian Gulf", a reference to Persian Gulf naming dispute. (See specimen)

Banknotes currently in circulation are 100, 200, 500, 1000, 2000, 5000, 10,000, 20,000 and 50,000 rials. Portraits of Ruhollah Khomeini are found on the obverse of 1000 rial banknote and greater.

[edit] Cash cheques

Currently the highest valued legal tender issued by the central bank is 50,000 rials (about U.S$5.40 in 2007). However, the central bank allows major state banks to print their own banknotes known as "cash cheques" (Persian: چک‌‌پول chekpul). They are a form of bearer teller's-cheque with pre-determined amounts, printed in the form of official currency. Once they are acquired from banks, they work like cash for one year, however some stores may reject the higher value notes as they are not officially a legal tender. They are printed in 200,000, 500,000, 1,000,000, 2,000,000 and 5,000,000 rial values.^[11][12][13]

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[edit] See also

• Least valued currency unit

[edit] References

v • d • e Currencies named dinar or similar
Current	Algerian dinar · Bahraini dinar · Islamic gold dinar · Iraqi dinar · Jordanian dinar · Kuwaiti dinar · Libyan dinar · Macedonian denar · Tunisian dinar · Serbian dinar
Defunct	Abu Dhabi dinar · Bosnia and Herzegovina dinar · Croatian dinar · Krajina dinar · Republika Srpska dinar · South Arabian dinar · South Yemeni dinar · Sudanese dinar · Yugoslav dinar
As subunit	Iranian rial
See also	E-dinar

v • d • e Currencies of Asia
Central	Afghan afghani · Kazakhstani tenge · Kyrgyz som · Mongolian tugrug · Russian ruble · Tajik somoni · Turkmen manat · Uzbek som
East	Chinese yuan · Hong Kong dollar · Japanese yen · Macanese pataca · North Korean won · New Taiwan dollar  ·South Korean won
South-East	Brunei dollar · Cambodian riel · Indonesian rupiah · Lao kip · Malaysian ringgit · Myanmar kyat · Philippine piso · Singapore dollar · Thai baht · U.S. dollar (East Timor) · Vietnamese đồng
South	Bangladeshi taka · Bhutanese ngultrum · Indian rupee · Maldivian rufiyaa · Nepalese rupee · Pakistani rupee · Sri Lankan rupee
West	Armenian dram · Azerbaijani manat · Bahraini dinar · Cypriot pound · Egyptian pound · Georgian lari · Iranian rial · Iraqi dinar · Israeli new sheqel · Jordanian dinar · Kuwaiti dinar · Lebanese lira · Omani rial · Qatari riyal · Saudi riyal · Syrian pound · Turkish new lira · UAE dirham · Yemeni rial