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The Banque de Syrie et du Liban was a French-controlled concessionary bank whose note-issuing authority over both the Syrian and Lebanese territories derived from a 1924 mandate arrangement — making this a colonial instrument dressed in the clothing of a central bank. By 1939, the political situation in the Levant was deteriorating sharply, and notes of this denomination saw disrupted distribution as the French mandate administration braced for war in Europe.

Printing was carried out by the Banque de France's own workshops in Paris, with engraving split between Beltrand on the obverse and Hourriez on the reverse — a division of labor common to French intaglio production of the period. Beltrand came from a notable dynasty of engravers; his father Jacques-Beltrand was among the most respected wood engravers in France at the turn of the century.