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5 Livres LIBAN 1939
| Issuer | Banque de Syrie et du Grand-Liban |
|---|---|
| Year | 1939 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 5 Livres |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is dominated by an ornate Moorish arch motif rendered in multicolour guilloche, within which the denomination "خمس ليرات" (Five Livres) appears in bold Arabic script. Two handwritten signatures of bank officials are placed below the arch, flanked by serial number panels at each corner, with a black letterpress overprint reading "LIBAN 1939" at the lower centre. Arabic text bands above and below the arch carry the issuing conditions and anti-counterfeiting warnings. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | بنك سوريا ولبنان الكبير خمس ليرات لبنان LIBAN 1939 J. DEMARCQ FEC. L.J. SOULAS SC. |
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| Comments |
The Banque de Syrie et du Grand-Liban was a French concessionary institution — its currency authority derived from a mandate, not a sovereign state. By 1939 that arrangement was already under political strain: Lebanese and Syrian nationalist movements had been pressing Paris for independence for years, and the outbreak of war in Europe would soon make French oversight of the Levant an increasingly complicated fiction.
Soulas was among the finest intaglio engravers working for the Banque de France in this period, and his contribution to this note reflects the same technical standard applied to metropolitan French issues. Hourriez handled the reverse. The pairing was deliberate — mandate territory or not, the French authorities printed colonial currency to metropolitan specification.