50,000 Iranian Rials

Iran is one of the countries that makes the Middle East important. In the modern day, Iran is on the world stage because of its nuclear aspirations and involvement in the Israel-Palestine conflict. Throughout history, the country also served as a bastion for scientific, economic, and cultural development in the Islamic world as well as a major corridor linking Europe and Asia.

In comparison to Kuwait, it would be reasonable to assume that Iran would have a similarly expensive currency. However, a peek at the Quick Facts shows us that 1 Iranian Rial is only worth 0.000024 USD as of December 3, 2024, meaning 1 US Dollar is worth 42110.39 Iranian Rials. Going by black market rates, this value actually goes down even more to 1 US Dollar being worth about 700,000 Iranian Rials or 1 Iranian Rial being worth 0.000001428571429 US Dollars.

The main factor that led to this phenomenon is the numerous sanctions that have been placed on Iran by Western countries, including the United States. The inciting incident of these sanctions took place during the Iranian Revolution of 1979, when protestors took 53 people hostage at the American Embassy in Tehran for 2 years, symbolizing their opposition to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and his Western-aligned government. This caused the United States to place sanctions on Iran for the first time, with them being lifted and reinstated erratically in later years. Additionally, Iran's growing aspirations to build a nuclear arsenal and support of groups considered terrorists by the West have attracted more Western sanctions to punish them.

These sweeping sanctions have generally targeted oil—Iran's most plentiful and lucrative export—meaning they cannot benefit from the economic stability it provides to other countries but are still affected by drops in oil prices. This, combined with poor government spending and regulation of inflation, has caused the value of the Iranian Rial to plummet.