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In the area of finance, the autonomous government
nationalized the larger banks and a new currency was introduced. At
this stage, the currency of Iran was the ‘Rial’, with ten rials equivalent
to one ‘Toman’. The currency issued by Iranian Azerbaijan was
denominated in ‘Tomans’ and ‘Krans’, with one toman equivalent to
ten krans. This reflected the structure of the Iranian currency up to
1931, when it was reformed to Rials and Tomans. So, while the new
currency maintained the toman as the principal denomination, krans
became the sub-unit rather than rials. The new currency was issued in
the denominations of: five krans, one toman, two toman, five toman,
10 toman and 50 toman.
The currency was issued under the authority of the Treasury
of the National Government of Azerbaijan. It is not known
whether the issue of the currency was due to a shortage of
Iranian currency, or whether the notes were intended to replace
Iranian currency, making a statement on the aspirations of the
Azerbaijanis. The fact that the notes were issued in Tomans, which
had been superseded in Iran for some years, suggests that the issue
of the notes was a statement indicating nationalistic aspirations.
Had the notes been issued in Rials (as opposed to Tomans and
Krans), then one might suspect the notes were issued to cover a
shortage in currency.
The new notes were all in the same format, with a number of
panels, or cartouches, holding text surrounded by arabesques. The
central panel reads: ‘Azerbaijani National Government Treasury
Bond’. The four corner panels state the denomination and read, for
the different denominations: five krans, one toman, two toman,
five toman, ten toman, and fifty toman. The date ‘Esfand 1324’
appears in a panel at the bottom centre of each note. The underprint
for each note is a pattern consisting of a pale colour on which
is repeated the word ‘Azerbaijan’ many times in very small text.
The notes were signed by Ghulam Reza Ilahami as the ‘Vazir
Malieh’ (Minister of Finance) and an unknown signatory as the
‘Khazanehdar’ (treasurer). Ilahami (1904-?) was an Azerbaijani,
born in Tabriz, and belonged to the urban upper class. He was
well-educated, having obtained a degree in political science. Prior
to the founding of the Autonomous Government of Azerbaijan,
Ilahami was the Mayor of Tabriz, although he held no affiliations
with a political party. After the fall of the government he fled to
Soviet Azerbaijan where he died in exile.
While each note is predominantly the same design, there
are differences between the five-krans note and the higher
denominations. First, each of the higher denomination notes
has the denomination perforated in the upper centre. The fivekrans
note has no perforated denomination. A single serial number
appears at the centre right on the higher denomination notes,
whereas for the five-krans note, the serial number is in the upper
centre. Finally, there is a rubber stamp on the higher denomination
notes at the centre left, whereas for the five-krans note the rubber
stamp can be found at the centre left or centre right.
The rubber stamp is a circular stamp, which has the date
‘Esfand 1324’ in the centre. The first day of Esfand 1324 was
20 February 1946, so it appears that the notes were prepared
for circulation in either late February or early March 1946. The
text in the upper arc of the stamp reads ‘Azerbaijan National
Government’, while the text in the lower arc reads ‘Treasury’.
The back of each note carries three lines of text reading:
1. The Azerbaijan National Government guarantees this bond.
2. In exchange for this bond, goods can be obtained in all
stores in Azerbaijan.
3. Those who try to counterfeit the bonds will be brought to
court and sentenced to death by the court.
With the exception of the 50-toman note, the signatures are
printed on the notes. 2 The 50-toman notes exist in a number of
varieties. On one variety of issued notes, the signatures appear
in black ink, while on another variety the Minister of Finance’s
signature is black and the Treasurer’s signature (at the right) is
red. Like the other denominations, the issued notes have the
This is a remainder of the 50-toman note. Issued notes of this denomination are scarce and hand-signed notes are rare.
IBNS Journal 48.2 55