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Re: [OM] IMG: Iranian Money (actually about money)

Subject: Re: [OM] IMG: Iranian Money (actually about money)
From: Lawrence Woods <lmwoods@xxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 14 May 2016 13:24:32 -0400
[I read the list digest, and I'm several days behind, so pardon me if everyone else has already moved on from this topic.]

The caption on the picture is "Rials and tomans were so confusing, we often let shopkeepers choose what we owed. One dollar equals 30,000 rials."

It bemuses me that when I was in the Peace Corps in Iran in the early 70's, my monthly stipend was about 30,000 rials, at the time roughly $400.

Tomans are actually easy to comprehend. A toman is not an official unit of currency, like a Guinea in England, but everyone knows and understands the value. As I think Tina said elsewhere, you just drop one zero to go from rials to tomans. Verbally, everyone discussed prices in tomans, but anything in writing, on the money or price tags, was in rials. At one time, a toman was a useful large coin/small purchase denomination, like a single schilling, franc, mark or a quarter in the USA, which is why it was the colloquial unit of currency. In my time in Iran, a toman (marked 10 rials) was the largest coin, with paper money starting at 20 rials.

Because they made great "uncle giveaway" coins (they were bigger than a US quarter), I took a roll of tomans with me when I left Iran. It boggles the mind to think that in theory, the face value of each of those coins is now 1/30 US cent. However, the actual face on the coins is the deposed Shah, so I don't think the coins have any value as currency.

Date: Thu, 12 May 2016 16:07:18 -0400
From: Tina Manley<tmanley@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Olympus Camera Discussion<olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: [OM] IMG: Iranian Money
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http://tinamanley.photoshelter.com/gallery-image/Iran/G0000YmlbTddL96g/I0000r1PIO5ggNp4

On Thu, May 12, 2016 at 4:03 PM, Ken Norton<ken@xxxxxxxxxxx>  wrote:

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