Catalog
50 Piastres
| Issuer | République Syrienne |
|---|---|
| Year | 1942 |
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| Reference(s) | P#54 |
| Obverse description | Central vignette of ancient Roman temple ruins with standing columns, set within an ornate blue guilloche border with green underprint. The denomination numeral '50' appears in each corner, with Arabic and French legends across the top. The date in Arabic script appears at the lower centre, with two signature panels flanking the central vignette. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is printed in brown and buff tones, dominated by a large central guilloche rosette encircling the bold numeral '50', with an interlocking serpentine lathe-work band running horizontally through the centre bearing the legend 'CINQUANTE PIASTRES'. The denomination numeral appears in each corner, and two signature panels — one for the Director General of Finances and one for the Minister of Finance — are positioned at lower left and lower right respectively. The imprint line at the foot reads 'DAMAS LE 31 AOUT 1942' with printer attribution. |
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| Comments |
The République Syrienne notes of this period were issued under the Free French administration following the Allied campaign against Vichy-controlled Syria and Lebanon in mid-1941. France's grip on the Levant was by then a diplomatic awkwardness — the notes maintained French institutional authority while Syria nominally moved toward the independence promised as a condition of the Allied invasion.
Printing was handled by the Survey of Egypt in Cairo, the same government cartographic and security printing office that produced British military and colonial paper across the region throughout the war. Egypt was the practical hub for Allied administrative needs in the Middle East, and farming Syrian currency to Cairo reflected wartime logistics as much as anything else.