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Currency – Two names, One Currency

Sufi

Tour Guide, Tehran, Iran

| 1 mins read

Currency – Two names, One Currency

Take US Dollars or Euros with you to Iran and change them up into Iranian Rial at the local exchange offices (not the dodgy guys on the street or at the hotels which have the lower government exchange rate).

Before you know it, you have millions of Rials and it all looks easy. However, while ALL notes state ‘Rial’ there is another ‘currency’ or ‘super unit’ that is used – Toman – which is not listed on any note or coin.

Toman is simply one tenth of the Rial price!

Imagine you order the food in restaurant and you are presented with bill of “32,000” which is equivalent to almost $1, unreasonably cheap, in fact the price is in Toman. To convert to Rial, you simply add a zero. therefore it is 320,000 Rial.