LEBANON. Aluminum Piastre, ND (1942-45). PCGS AU-55 Gold Shield.
KM-12a; Lec-47. Local World War II emergency issue struck in Aleppo. Matte silver-gray fields are very lightly lustrous, and the high points are very subtly worn to a lighter silver hue. Well struck for this rare off-metal issue utilizing a crude, thick planchet with very thin cracks at the peripheries that do not affect any of the lettering. Jean Lecompte and Stephan Sombart, in an article published by iNumis about these World War II emergency issues, report that unpublished original manuscript documents in their hands relate how these issues were struck from aluminum and bronze salvaged from a crashed airplane. They catalog some previously unknown and unpublished Lebanese and Syrian patterns for this issue and comment that the Aluminum 1 Piastre for Lebanon is VERY RARE. Not surprising, there are no coins graded finer at PCGS.
Estimate: $1,000 - $1,500.
Provenance: The Cedars Collection of Lebanese Coinage, 1924-1961.
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