10 Livres Syriennes

The Banque de Syrie was established by French mandate authority in 1919, and this 10 Livres note belongs to the earliest series issued under that arrangement — a direct instrument of the post-Ottoman monetary reorganization following the Sykes-Picot partition. The French Treasury effectively underwrote the bank's initial capitalization, making these early notes quasi-sovereign obligations dressed as commercial paper.

Imprimerie Nationale in Paris handled the work, as it did for most French colonial and mandate currency of the period. The livre syrienne was pegged to the French franc at par, a decision that tied Syrian monetary conditions directly to postwar French fiscal instability.