2 Girushān / Piastres Essai

Greater Lebanon was proclaimed by French General Henri Gouraud in September 1920, carved out of former Ottoman territory under a League of Nations mandate. The essai coinage of 1925 preceded the formal currency legislation that established the Lebanese pound, and these trial pieces were struck at the Paris Mint to test designs and alloys before committing to full production runs. The aluminium bronze composition was itself under evaluation — France was experimenting with the alloy across several mandate territories simultaneously.

KM#E3 is among the scarcer denominations in the 1925 essai series. Survivor populations are small; most exist in institutional collections rather than private hands.