France's fall to Germany in June 1940 left Syria's Mandate administration in the hands of Vichy, cutting the territory off from metropolitan French minting infrastructure. This 1941 aluminium bronze pattern was struck as wartime supply chains strangled access to the cupro-nickel normally used for Syrian fractional coinage. It never advanced to circulation — the Free French seizure of Syria following the brief Syria-Lebanon Campaign of June–July 1941 overtook whatever production planning had been underway under Vichy authority.
France's fall to Germany in June 1940 left Syria's Mandate administration in the hands of Vichy, cutting the territory off from metropolitan French minting infrastructure. This 1941 aluminium bronze pattern was struck as wartime supply chains strangled access to the cupro-nickel normally used for Syrian fractional coinage. It never advanced to circulation — the Free French seizure of Syria following the brief Syria-Lebanon Campaign of June–July 1941 overtook whatever production planning had been underway under Vichy authority.