Description

The State of Greater Lebanon (French: État du Grand Liban) was a state declared on 1 September 1920, which became the Lebanese Republic in May 1926, and is the predecessor of modern Lebanon.

When the Ottoman Empire was formally split up by the Treaty of Sèvres in 1920, it was decided that four of its territories in the Middle East should be League of Nations mandates temporarily governed by the United Kingdom and France on behalf of the League. The British were given Palestine and Iraq, while the French were given a mandate over Syria and Lebanon.

The Mandate for Syria and the Lebanon was a League of Nations mandate created after World War I to govern the region. Unlike traditional colonialism, it was meant to act as a temporary trusteeship until self-government was possible. The area was administered by the French through various entities like the Syrian Federation, State of Syria, and Mandatory Syrian Republic, as well as smaller states. In 1946, the French mandate ended when both Syria and Lebanon declared independence, and French troops withdrew.

An essai is a type of trial strike, typically a non-circulating, non-legal tender coin with a slightly higher mintage than the usual pattern coin.