The Banque de Syrie et du Grand-Liban was established in 1919 under French Mandate authority to serve as the currency-issuing institution for territories carved out of the collapsed Ottoman Empire. This 1925 essai — a trial piece submitted for official approval rather than intended circulation — predates the regular bronze issue and was produced in Paris as part of the Mandate administration's effort to establish a coherent monetary system distinct from the Ottoman piastre it was replacing.
Essais of this series are genuinely scarce; Leconte documents only a handful of confirmed specimens.
The Banque de Syrie et du Grand-Liban was established in 1919 under French Mandate authority to serve as the currency-issuing institution for territories carved out of the collapsed Ottoman Empire. This 1925 essai — a trial piece submitted for official approval rather than intended circulation — predates the regular bronze issue and was produced in Paris as part of the Mandate administration's effort to establish a coherent monetary system distinct from the Ottoman piastre it was replacing.
Essais of this series are genuinely scarce; Leconte documents only a handful of confirmed specimens.