The defaced banknotes began appearing just after the June 12 elections. But they have gotten more common as the months pass by. As one Farsi blogger described the trend, “Money talks.”
The newest messages on currency are a call for people to fill the streets in protest on February 11, the anniversary of the 1979 revolution.
There are many kinds of messages, some simply scrawled in handwriting, usually using green ink, and others very professionally printed over the blank area on the bills where the watermark is found.
One popular slogan says, “Fear the storm of dust and dirt.” Back in June, President Ahmadi-nejad dismissed the protesters as nothing more than “dust and dirt.”
Other bills can be seen with a V for Victory sign and the slogan, “We are too numerous to count.”
A few dissidents take the hardest line and cross out the picture of Ayatollah Khomeini that adorns most notes. Others cross out the word “Islamic” in Islamic Republic of Iran.
Others show red hands, emblematic of protesters raising hands they have dipped in the blood of martyrs.