Lebanon: trees, galleys and lions

[<k>]

Lebanon, 250 pounds, 2003.

Another interesting version of the tree.

Here it is a background silhouette.

You don't necessarily notice at first.

[Figleaf]

There is a relation between the cedars and the galleys. Consider this bible text:

1 Kings 5:6
"So give orders that cedars of Lebanon be cut for me. My men will work with yours, and I will pay you for your men whatever wages you set. You know that we have no one so skilled in felling timber as the Sidonians."

This is talk about building a temple. Evidently, Lebanese cedars are considered as the best wooden building material. Not only is the wood hard and durable, even more important, the trees are tall and straight, great for making long, strong beams. Those same qualities make the wood eminently suitable for building ships. It is no coincidence that the Phoenicians are famous sea-farers. They had the best ships.

The cedars of the Lebanon are symbols of great strength, like the oaks in Northern Europe, the galleys are the expression of that strength.

Isaiah 2:13
For the lord of hosts will have a day of reckoning against everyone who is proud and lofty and against everyone who is lifted up, that he may be abased. And it will be against all the cedars of Lebanon that are lofty and lifted up, Against all the oaks of Bashan,

Peter

[<k>]

Syria, 1 piastre, 1940.




Syria, 1 piastre, 1935.




Lebanon, 1 piastre, 1936.

Interestingly, Syria had some of the same designs as Lebanon on its old coins.

These included particularly those showing lion heads.

[Figleaf]

Above or below the lion heads are the signs of the Paris mint and its director, Lucien Bazor. Both became a French mandate after the first world war. Their monetary unit was the piastre (a word that in French can be used for just about any big silver Asian coin) of 100 Turkish kurus - both were within the Ottoman empire before. The currency split into a Lebanese and a Syrian variant between 1924 and 1926, but the value of the two piastres remained close or the same until independence in 1941 (Lebanon) and 1944 (Syria).

Peter