50 Pounds

1958 was the year Syria merged with Egypt to form the United Arab Republic, which makes this Central Bank of Syria issue something of an institutional orphan — printed by Enschedé in Haarlem almost simultaneously with the political dissolution of the issuing authority itself. The UAR's own currency apparatus would soon supersede Syrian notes entirely.

Enschedé's involvement here is worth noting. The Haarlem firm had been printing high-security documents since the early eighteenth century, and their intaglio work for smaller Middle Eastern central banks in the 1950s was technically superior to what most regional printers could then offer. P#90 was a relatively short-lived type for exactly that reason — superseded before the print run could age into heavy circulation.