Catalog
5 Piastres
| Issuer | République Libanaise (Lebanese Republic) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1942 |
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| Currency | Lebanese pound (1939-date) |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | الجمهورية اللبنانية خمسة قروش وزير المالية مدير المالية العام بيروت في ١٥ تموز سنة ١٩٤٢ (Translation: Lebanese Republic / Five Piastres / Minister of Finance / Director General of Finance / Beirut, 15 July 1942) |
| Reverse description | The French-language reverse is engraved in dark blue-grey on plain paper, with the bold serif legend REPUBLIQUE LIBANAISE arching across the upper field. A central floral guilloche rosette frames the large numeral 5 above the denomination tablet reading PIASTRES, flanked symmetrically by two detailed vignettes of fruit and grape clusters. The denomination numeral 5 appears in circular guilloche panels at the upper corners within star cartouches, and two signature lines with their French title labels are placed below the central vignette, above the date panel reading BEYROUTH LE 15 JUILLET 1942. |
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| Comments |
The 1942 Lebanese 5 Piastres was a wartime expedient, produced by the Survey of Egypt in Cairo because normal printing channels through France had been severed by the German occupation. Lebanon at the time was technically under Vichy authority until the Allied invasion of June 1941, after which the Free French took administrative control — this note belongs to the transitional period when the monetary apparatus was being reconstructed under difficult circumstances.
The Survey of Egypt was a cartographic and printing bureau, not a specialist banknote printer. Its involvement here reflects the improvised nature of currency supply across the Levant during the war years.