5 Piastres

The Banque de Syrie et du Liban, a French-chartered institution, remained the note-issuing authority for Lebanon well into independence — this 1948 issue appeared three years after Lebanon formally ended the French Mandate, yet the banking infrastructure changed far more slowly than the political calendar. The small denomination was printed on an unusually reduced format even by regional standards of the period, a practical decision driven by tight wartime-era paper allocations that the bank had never fully reversed.

Pick #40 is among the more elusive of the postwar Lebanese issues; low face value meant heavy use and rapid attrition.