5 Livres

The Banque de Syrie et du Liban operated under French Mandate authority, and this 1939 issue arrived as that mandate was entering its most politically turbulent phase — war in Europe was imminent, and uncertainty about the future of both Syria and Lebanon was already affecting monetary confidence. The Banque de France handled printing throughout the series, consistent with the broader French policy of keeping colonial and mandate currency production close to metropolitan institutions.

Clément Serveau was a respected commercial and decorative artist whose work appeared across multiple French overseas currency issues of the period. Ernest Deloche engraved the obverse; the reverse went to Marguerite Dreyfus, known professionally as Rita — one of the few women working as a production engraver in French currency printing at the time.