Catalog
100 Livres LIBAN 1939
| Issuer | Banque de Syrie et du Grand-Liban |
|---|---|
| Year | 1939 |
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| Composition | Paper |
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| Obverse lettering | LIBAN BANQUE DE SYRIE ET DU GRAND-LIBAN البنك السوري CENT LIVRES SYRIENNES Remboursable au porteur contre 2000 Francs en chèque sur Paris. تدفع لحامله لقاء «شك» على باريس قيمة اثني فرنك بيروت في أول شباط ١٩٣٩ للمدير العام لير السورية S.SYR. 100 |
| Reverse description | A panoramic mountain landscape vignette occupies the central oval, rendered in rich brown intaglio, showing a valley with mountains and a village in the middle distance. The composition is enclosed within an ornate multicolour guilloche border with floral corner medallions in green and pink. The Arabic bank title 'البنك السوري' appears at the top, with the denomination 'CENT LIVRES SYRIENNES' and 'S.SYR. 100' set in bold lettering at the base of the central design. |
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| Comments |
The Banque de Syrie et du Grand-Liban was a French Mandate institution — nominally a central bank but effectively a tool of the Caisse Centrale de la France d'Outre-Mer, with note-issuing rights tied to the franc zone rather than any independent monetary policy. By 1939, the political ground was already shifting: the Hatay question had just been settled against Syria's interests, and the mandate administration was visibly losing its grip on the region's future.
Bradbury Wilkinson produced this note at their New Malden works, as they did for dozens of colonial and quasi-colonial issuers across the British and French spheres. The 100 Livres was the highest denomination in the series — high-value notes from this issuer in this period are genuinely scarce, as wartime disruption to French Mandate finances drastically shortened normal circulation cycles after 1940.