1 Ghirsh / Piastre WW2 War Coinage, Aluminium Pattern

Syria and Lebanon were under Vichy French administration when this piece was produced in 1941, and the practical pressures of wartime metal rationing drove experimentation with aluminium as a substitute for the nickel and bronze alloys no longer reliably available. The Banque de Syrie et du Liban had limited room to maneuver — Vichy controlled monetary policy, the Free French were pressing from outside, and base metal supplies were disrupted across the entire Levant. This piece never entered circulation, remaining a pattern.