The Banque de Syrie et du Grand-Liban was a French concessionary bank — privately owned, operating under a government charter — granted the right to issue currency across the French Mandate territories. By 1935 the political ground was already shifting; Syrian nationalists had been pushing for full independence since the late 1920s, and the bank's dual mandate over both Syria and Greater Lebanon was increasingly contested. The note's printing by the Banque de France's own press rather than a commercial house like Bradbury Wilkinson reflects the French state's close interest in maintaining monetary control over the Levant.
P#34 is among the scarcer issued types of the series, with relatively low survival rates in grades above Fine.
The Banque de Syrie et du Grand-Liban was a French concessionary bank — privately owned, operating under a government charter — granted the right to issue currency across the French Mandate territories. By 1935 the political ground was already shifting; Syrian nationalists had been pushing for full independence since the late 1920s, and the bank's dual mandate over both Syria and Greater Lebanon was increasingly contested. The note's printing by the Banque de France's own press rather than a commercial house like Bradbury Wilkinson reflects the French state's close interest in maintaining monetary control over the Levant.
P#34 is among the scarcer issued types of the series, with relatively low survival rates in grades above Fine.