The Syrian pound
Currency · SYP · £ · 1 country
The Central Bank of Syria removed two zeros from the pound in 2026: from 1 January, 100 old pounds bought one new one, and the exchange of old notes ran until 30 July. Syria has counted in pounds since 1919, when the Banque de Syrie first issued them under the French mandate. In Arabic the currency is the lira.
The sign
Syria has no official currency sign; the £ given here is the general pound sign. Amounts are written LS or SP in Latin script and ل.س in Arabic, and older texts used £S or £Syr. The French livre and the Arabic lira are the same unit as the English pound.
The same sign stands for 5 other currencies, among them the British pound and the Falkland Islands pound.
- ISO code
- SYP
- ISO number
- 760
- Subunit
- piastre, 1/100
An amount, written out
£1,234
- £1,234English
- ١٬٢٣٤ £ArabicSyria
The sign in code
HTML, CSS, JavaScript, UTF-8
- HTML
£££- CSS
content: "\00A3";- JavaScript
"\u00A3"- UTF-8
0xC2 0xA3- UTF-16
0x00A3- UTF-32
0x000000A3
Where the Syrian pound is the official currency
Syria uses the pound by itself. Lebanon once shared the Syro-Lebanese pound with it, until the two currencies separated for good in 1948.
About the Syrian pound
How the mandate brought Syria a pound
For about four hundred years of Ottoman rule Syria paid mainly in Ottoman pounds. When the empire fell, the Egyptian pound served across the French and British mandates. France sought to replace the Egyptian money in Syria and Lebanon, and it gave a commercial bank, the Banque de Syrie, a French affiliate of the Ottoman Bank, the right to issue one. The pound, or livre, arrived in 1919 at 20 French francs.
The bank became the Banque de Syrie et du Grand-Liban and issued a Syro-Lebanese pound from 1924. Before that arrangement ran out it split the money into Syrian and Lebanese currencies that still passed in either state. The two separated for good in 1948. The Banque Centrale de Syrie, the Central Bank of Syria, took over note issue in 1957.
What the pound has been tied to
A peg to sterling at 8.83125 pounds to £1 replaced the franc link in 1941, after British and Free French forces occupied Syria. The franc returned in 1946. Syria joined the International Monetary Fund in 1947 and fixed the pound at 2.19148 to the US dollar, a rate held until 1961. After that several official rates ran beside a black market rate, and the gap between them widened sharply in the 1980s. In July 2007 the pound was pegged to the IMF's Special Drawing Rights.
The civil war that began in 2011 drove capital to neighbouring countries, and sanctions from the United States, the European Union and others cut Syria off from the global financial system. The official rate went from 47 pounds to the dollar in March 2011 to 7,500 in April 2023.
Why the notes switched from French to English
Until 1958 the notes carried Arabic on the front and French on the back. English replaced the French that year, which is why the currency answers to three names: lira in Arabic, livre in French and pound in English. Before 1947 the Arabic word for the piastre, qirsh, was spelled with the letter غ instead of ق.
What the new banknotes leave out
In August 2025 the government announced that it would take two zeros off the currency, and the Central Bank unveiled the new notes on 29 December 2025 under Decree No. 293 of 2025. Exchange began on 1 January 2026, at 100 old pounds to one new one. The first phase brought six notes from 10 to 500 pounds, with 1,000, 5 and 1 to follow.
The designs drop both portraits and national landmarks. Their fronts show plants and animals, among them the Damascene rose and the Reem gazelle, and every back shows the Central Bank. Raised lines along the edges let visually impaired users tell the values apart. The old 5,000 pound note became worth 50 new ones. Old and new notes were to share legal tender status for 90 days; the period was extended to 30 July 2026, by when 95% of the old currency had been replaced. The Central Bank said it would keep exchanging old notes at its branches for five years.
Common questions
Questions about the Syrian pound
Why is the Syrian pound also called the lira?
Lira is the Arabic name, al-līra as-sūriyya, and it is what Syrians use. The notes carried French on the back until 1958, where the currency was the livre, and English after that, where it became the pound. Abbreviations follow the same split: LS or SP in Latin script, ل.س in Arabic.
How do old Syrian pounds convert to the new ones?
At 100 to 1. The Central Bank of Syria began exchanging old notes for the new series on 1 January 2026, so the old 5,000 pound note became worth 50 new pounds. The two sets were meant to circulate together for 90 days. That period was extended to 30 July 2026, and by then 95% of the old currency had been handed in. The bank said it would go on exchanging old notes at its branches for five years after the switch.
What is on the new Syrian banknotes?
Plants and animals, with no portraits and no national landmarks. The fronts pair crops or flowers with an animal, such as roses with a butterfly or olives with an Arabian horse, and every back shows the Central Bank of Syria. Each value has its own pattern of raised lines at the edges for visually impaired users.
Did Syria and Lebanon once share a currency?
Yes. The Banque de Syrie et du Grand-Liban issued a single Syro-Lebanese pound from 1924. It later split it into two currencies that could still be spent in either state, and the Lebanese and Syrian pounds separated completely in 1948.