5 Qirsh / Piastres Essai

Syria's 1926 coinage was produced under the French Mandate authority, with dies cut at the Paris Mint. Essai pieces like this one were struck as pattern submissions for official approval — a standard step in the French monetary bureaucracy before production coinage was authorized. The mandate administration was still consolidating its currency framework following the collapse of Ottoman monetary infrastructure, and Paris retained full control over what denominations would enter circulation and in what form.

Lec#22 places this among a small family of 1926 aluminium bronze essais that rarely surface outside specialist sales.