Catalog
5 Livres
| Issuer | Banque de Syrie et du Liban |
|---|---|
| Year | 1942 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
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| Designer(s) | R. Soriano |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is printed entirely in Arabic script and follows a layout mirroring the obverse, with three interlocking hexagonal guilloche frames in the same dark blue-grey ink. The numeral '5' appears in the left panel and a circular device at right, while the central panel carries the Arabic text of the bond obligation. The Arabic heading for 'Banque de Syrie et du Liban' is set at the top, with corner inscriptions reading 'سند مالي' and the date 'بيروت أول آب ١٩٤٢' printed at the foot of the central panel. |
| Reverse lettering | سند مالي سند مالي بنك سوريا ولبنان سند خمس ليرات تدفع بها للحامل على بارين عشرون فرنكاً بقيمة الليرة بيروت أول آب ١٩٤٢ |
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| Comments |
The Banque de Syrie et du Liban was a French concessionary bank — its note-issuing privilege granted by mandate authority, not by any sovereign Lebanese or Syrian government. By 1942, the Free French had displaced Vichy control over the Levant following the Syria-Lebanon campaign of 1941, and the currency apparatus came with the territory. This note was printed by the Banque de France in Paris, which is worth pausing on: Paris was under German occupation when this series was produced, raising genuine questions about the logistics of getting plates and paper to the presses at the time.
R. Soriano's designer credit appears in the margin — a name associated with several Banque de France-adjacent colonial issues of the period.