1 Ghirsh / Piastre WW2 War Coinage

Syria and Lebanon were under French Mandate administration when Germany overran France in June 1940, leaving the Levant territories in the hands of Vichy authorities. The British and Free French invaded in June 1941, and it was in the chaos of that transition that wartime aluminum coinage became a necessity — nickel and copper were requisitioned for the war effort, and the Banque de Syrie et du Liban had to work with whatever base metals remained available. The aluminum substitution was strictly a wartime expedient, not a redesign.