25 Piastres

The Banque de Syrie et du Grand-Liban was established in 1919 under French Mandate authority as the sole bank of issue for Syria and Greater Lebanon — a territory the French had carved out of former Ottoman lands just the previous year. This note, Pick 1, is the inaugural issue of that institution, printed by the Banque de France in Paris, which brought its full intaglio expertise to a series intended to project French monetary authority across the Levant.

The 1925 date coincides almost exactly with the outbreak of the Great Syrian Revolt, which severely disrupted French control across the region. Whether notes from this printing actually reached broad circulation before the crisis deepened is an open question.