50 Livres

The Banque de Syrie et du Grand-Liban was a French concessionary institution — its note-issuing privilege granted by the French Mandate authorities, not by any sovereign Syrian or Lebanese government. By 1939, that arrangement was already politically precarious, with Syrian nationalist pressure mounting against the Mandate and the bank's monopoly on currency emission.

Imprimerie Houriez, based in Lille, was a commercial printer rather than a specialist security press — an unusual choice for a high-denomination note, and one that distinguishes this series from contemporaneous issues printed by the more conventional Banque de France facilities.