1/2 Ghirsh / Piastre

The Banque de Syrie et du Grand-Liban, a French concessionary institution rather than a true central bank, issued this coin under the authority of the French Mandate — a League of Nations arrangement that gave Paris administrative control over Syria and Lebanon following the post-WWI partition of Ottoman territories. The dual denomination inscription, giving both the Arabic ghirsh and the French piastre, reflects the administrative awkwardness of governing a multilingual population under a foreign mandate power.

The 1934–1936 date range brackets a period of significant political turbulence, including the Syrian general strike of 1936 and Franco-Syrian treaty negotiations that ultimately failed ratification in the French parliament.