5000 Pounds

Syria's highest-denomination note entering circulation in 2019 is itself a measure of how far the pound had collapsed — the Syrian pound lost over 99% of its value between 2011 and the early 2020s, making five thousand of them worth less than a single US dollar by the time most of these notes were in wallets. The decision to contract Goznak in Moscow was not incidental: Western security printing firms had largely withdrawn from Syrian contracts under sanctions pressure, and Russia's deepening political and military involvement after 2015 made the relationship a practical one.

Goznak has printed Syrian currency since at least the 2010s series, making this a continuation of an established arrangement rather than a wartime improvisation.