Syria's 2026 Redenomination: Old Pound vs. New Pound, Note by Note
On January 1, 2026, Syria began swapping its banknotes at 100 old pounds to one new pound. Six new denominations appeared at once, all dated 2025, all printed abroad, and all built around plants and animals rather than people. Seven months later the old paper stopped being money. This page sets the two series side by side, denomination by denomination, using the central bank's own announcements and catalog descriptions of the notes.
100 old : 1 new Six denominations, dated 2025 Issued January 1, 2026 Printer: Goznak
Last updated: September 2026
Syria redenominated its pound on January 1, 2026, exchanging 100 old pounds for one new pound. Decree No. 293 of 2025 removed two zeros, kept the pound as the unit and set the qirsh at one hundredth of a new pound. Six denominations, 10 through 500, entered circulation that day, and the exchange window closed on July 31, 2026.
What is Syria's 2026 redenomination?
It is a redenomination of the Syrian pound at 100 old pounds to one new pound, set out in Decree No. 293 of 2025 and effective from January 1, 2026. Two zeros came off every face value. The unit kept its name, the smallest unit became the qirsh at one hundredth of a pound, and a new family of banknotes replaced the old one.
The decree was issued on December 31, 2025 and published by the state news agency the same day (SANA, December 31, 2025). Its terms are unusually explicit for a currency reform. Old and new notes were to circulate side by side during a transition period and hold equal legal tender status. At the end of the exchange deadlines the old pound would cease to be legal tender and be withdrawn. No commission, fee or tax could be charged on any exchange. Every public and private body had to display amounts in both currencies during the transition, and contracts signed before the changeover were to be settled at old-currency values.
Two days earlier, on December 28, 2025, the Central Bank of Syria had set out the executive instructions at a press conference in Damascus, announcing the 100 to 1 conversion and a 90-day period of dual circulation that could be extended (SANA, December 28, 2025; Arab News Japan). Governor Abdulkader Husrieh said bank balances would be converted at the start of the year and that the total money supply would be neither increased nor reduced. The notes themselves were unveiled the following evening, December 29, 2025, at a ceremony at the Conferences' Palace in Damascus (SANA, December 29, 2025).
If the mechanics are unfamiliar, our explainer on what demonetization is sets out the four ways a currency gets switched off, and every currency redenomination since 1923 puts Syria's ratio next to the rest of the record.
How does the 100 to 1 conversion work?
Every 100 old pounds became one new pound, so a 5,000 old pound note was worth 50 new pounds and the new 500, the largest denomination issued, stood for 50,000 old pounds. The arithmetic is a straight shift of the decimal point by two places. Prices, salaries, contracts and bank balances all moved by the same factor.
Governor Husrieh gave that example himself before the launch, telling the Syrian News Channel on December 26, 2025 that one new pound would equal 100 old pounds and that the 500-pound note would correspond to 50,000 old pounds (SANA, December 26, 2025). He was careful to describe the change as nominal. "The change is in the denomination, not the value itself," he said. "The new notes will have no direct impact on purchasing power."
The decree also rebuilt the subunit. Under Law No. 23 of 2002 as amended by Decree No. 293 of 2025, the standard unit is the new pound, divided into 100 qirsh, and prices may be quoted in fractions of a pound with the final payment rounded to a circulating denomination (SANA, January 1, 2026). That is a meaningful detail for a currency whose piastre had been a dead unit for years.
Which banknotes did Syria issue in 2026?
Six paper notes, all dated 2025 and all introduced on January 1, 2026: 10, 25, 50, 100, 200 and 500 pounds. The Central Bank of Syria lists exactly these six in its published banknote gallery, each dated 2025. The Banknote Book catalogs them as B637 through B642, all 157 by 65 millimeters, all printed by Goznak.
The design brief is the most striking thing about the series. Every note pairs a Syrian crop with a Syrian animal on the front, set against an Arabesque pattern, the eagle-with-stars emblem of the Syrian Republic and a concave hexadecagon used as a see-through registration device. All six share one back: three five-pointed stars arched above the Central Bank of Syria headquarters building in Damascus, with the Dome of the Treasury at the Umayyad Mosque alongside (catalog descriptions per BanknoteNews, January 27, 2026). No portrait appears anywhere in the series.
The state news agency published an explainer on the motifs on January 2, 2026, quoting agricultural engineers on why each crop was chosen: wheat on the largest note as a staple crop, cotton for the textile industry, the Damascene rose and the Syrian mulberry for cultural weight, olive for continuity and citrus for the coastal regions (SANA, January 2, 2026). Security features climb with the denomination: the 10 and 25 carry a colored windowed thread, the 50 a gold one, and the 100, 200 and 500 a winged windowed holographic thread. For what those terms mean, see our guide to banknote security features.
One signature covers the whole series. The Banknote Book records all six as signature 22, Sabrine, which makes the first issue of the new pound a single, closed signature type. Collectors who track signature varieties will recognize how unusual that is for a national series launched in one day.
Which old notes does each new denomination replace?
Only two of the six line up with a single old note. The new 10 equals the old 1,000 and the new 50 equals the old 5,000. The new 25, 100, 200 and 500 stand for 2,500, 10,000, 20,000 and 50,000 old pounds, figures the old series never printed on a single piece of paper. That is the clearest measure of how far the denomination ladder had drifted.
| New denomination | Old-currency value | Old note it matches | Ratio | Issue date | Front design |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 pounds B637 | 1,000 old pounds | Old 1,000 pound note, dated 2013, issued in 2015 | 100 : 1 | January 1, 2026 | Roses and a butterfly; red, pink, yellow and orange |
| 25 pounds B638 | 2,500 old pounds | No single old note at this value | 100 : 1 | January 1, 2026 | Mulberry branch and a bird; blue, green and red |
| 50 pounds B639 | 5,000 old pounds | Old 5,000 pound note, dated 2019, issued January 24, 2021 | 100 : 1 | January 1, 2026 | Orange tree branch and a conch shell; orange, red and yellow |
| 100 pounds B640 | 10,000 old pounds | No single old note at this value | 100 : 1 | January 1, 2026 | Cotton bolls and an antelope; purple, blue, red and black |
| 200 pounds B641 | 20,000 old pounds | No single old note at this value | 100 : 1 | January 1, 2026 | Olive branch and an Arabian horse head; green, yellow and tan |
| 500 pounds B642 | 50,000 old pounds | No single old note at this value | 100 : 1 | January 1, 2026 | Wheat spikes and a bird; brown, yellow, blue and gray |
Denominations and 2025 dating per the Central Bank of Syria banknote gallery; catalog numbers, colors, designs and the January 1, 2026 introduction date per BanknoteNews, January 27, 2026; old-series dating per the Central Bank of Syria banknote gallery, with issue dates as reported by SANA and contemporary wire coverage. Old-currency values are the arithmetic result of the 100 to 1 ratio, not separate announcements.
The old series those figures refer to is the 2009 to 2025 family: the 50, 100 and 200 issued on July 27, 2010 and designed by the Austrian banknote designer Robert Kalina (Die Welt), the 500 of 2014, the 1,000 of 2015, the 2,000 of 2017 and the 5,000 of 2021. Their subjects were heritage sites and antiquities: the Ugarit and Ebla tablets, the Roman theater at Bosra, the norias of Hama, the Temple of Bel ceiling at Palmyra, the mosaic of the musicians from Maryamin and a Roman grape-harvest mosaic from Deir al-Adas. Our Syria country guide walks through those eras in full.
How long did the exchange period last?
Seven months. The announced window was 90 days of dual circulation from January 1, 2026, and the central bank extended it three times: by two months on February 27, then to June 30 on May 1, then by a final 30 days to July 31, 2026.
| Date | Announcement | Progress reported |
|---|---|---|
| October 8, 2025 | Central bank says a new six-denomination series is coming, with no images or symbols on the notes | Specifications not yet published |
| December 26, 2025 | Exchange to run from January 1 through 66 companies and 1,000 outlets | Designs not yet released |
| December 28 to 31, 2025 | Executive instructions announced, notes unveiled, Decree No. 293 of 2025 issued | 90 days of dual circulation announced |
| January 1, 2026 | Exchange opens; old 1,000, 2,000 and 5,000 pound notes withdrawn first | Smaller old denominations continue to circulate |
| February 4, 2026 | Destruction of returned old notes begins under the Central Organization for Financial Control | One month into the exchange |
| February 23 and 27, 2026 | Deadline extended by two months | About 35 percent of old currency replaced |
| May 1 and 4, 2026 | Deadline extended to June 30, 2026 | About 56 percent replaced |
| June 1, 2026 | Final 30-day extension, from July 1 to July 31, 2026 | More than 63 percent replaced |
Sources in date order: SANA, October 8, 2025; December 26, 2025; December 28, 2025; January 1, 2026; February 4, 2026; February 27, 2026; May 1, 2026; May 4, 2026; June 1, 2026.
Two operational details are worth pulling out of that table. The first is sequencing: the three largest old denominations, the 1,000, 2,000 and 5,000, were pulled at the very start while the 50 through 500 kept circulating until they were phased out. The second is destruction. Returned notes were received at bank branches, moved to designated centers and destroyed under the supervision of the Central Organization for Financial Control, which began that work on February 4, 2026. A currency that is counted in and then pulped has a fixed surviving population from that day forward, which is the single fact that turns a withdrawn note into a collectible one.
The central bank also changed hands during the exchange. Abdulkader Husrieh made the progress announcements through May 2026; by June 1, 2026 the governor giving them was Mohammed Safwat Raslan, who announced the final extension and instructed banks, exchange companies and money transfer firms to stop paying out old notes.
All six notes of the new Syrian pound series carry the same date, the same size, the same back design and the same signature, and every one of them was introduced on a single day, January 1, 2026. Complete national series that begin and end on one date are rare. This one is catalogued as B637 to B642 and printed by Goznak.
What changed between the announcement and the notes?
Two published plans did not match the paper that arrived. In October 2025 the central bank said the new notes would carry no images or symbols. In December 2025 it listed the first six denominations as 5, 10, 25, 50, 100 and 500. The notes actually issued are covered in plants and animals, and the six are 10, 25, 50, 100, 200 and 500.
On October 8, 2025, Governor Husrieh told the state news agency that the coming series would run to six denominations "that contain no images or symbols," that it would include small, medium and large values, and that full specifications would follow once printing and issuance were finalized (SANA, October 8, 2025). Three months later the issued notes carried roses, mulberries, citrus, cotton, olives and wheat on the front, paired with a butterfly, birds, a conch shell, an antelope and an Arabian horse, plus the central bank building and the Umayyad Mosque treasury dome on the back. The stated principle survived only in one narrow sense: no person appears on any note.
The denomination list moved too. On December 26, 2025 the governor named the first six as 5, 10, 25, 50, 100 and 500 pounds. The Central Bank of Syria's published gallery shows six notes dated 2025, and they are 10, 25, 50, 100, 200 and 500. No 5-pound note appears in the gallery or in The Banknote Book's catalog of the series, and a 200 that was not in the December list does. Anyone building a type set of the new pound should work from the issued six, not from the pre-launch announcement.
He also warned, in that same interview, that images of the new currency circulating on social media were inaccurate and that the central bank was the only body authorized to release official designs and denominations. That warning is worth remembering when buying: fantasy pieces and pre-launch mock-ups tend to follow a high-profile currency change. Our guide on how to spot counterfeit banknotes and the reference on replicas and novelty notes both apply directly here.
Why does the 2026 series matter to collectors?
Because it is a complete, dated, closed chapter that happened in one year. The old series stopped being money on a known date, the returned notes are being destroyed, and the new series is a six-note set with one signature, one printer and one introduction date. Both sides of the changeover are collectible for opposite reasons.
For the outgoing pound, the appeal is the ending. The 2009 to 2025 family ran through a period when the Central Bank of Syria kept adding larger notes to keep pace with a falling currency: the 500 in 2014, the 1,000 in 2015, the 2,000 in 2017 and the 5,000 in 2021. Those last high denominations were the paper record of that drift, and they were the first three withdrawn in January 2026. Notes that leave circulation abruptly tend to survive in better condition than notes that fade out slowly, a pattern explained on our demonetization page.
For the incoming pound, the appeal is completeness. Six notes, dated 2025, introduced together on January 1, 2026, catalogued B637 to B642, all the same size, all the same signature. A type set is six pieces and no more. Planet Banknote lists the new-series 500 pound note, the top denomination and the wheat design, in its Syria banknotes section. If you want to see where the Syrian pound's slide sits against the record collapses rather than alongside them, our every hyperinflation ranked page draws that line, and the curated hyperinflation sets put several crisis currencies in one place.
Condition is the usual lever. Notes pulled fresh from a 2026 exchange should be Uncirculated, the top of the ladder that runs UNC, AU, XF, VF, F, VG and G, and there is no reason to accept less on a series this new. Our banknote grading guide explains the scale, catalog numbering explains how the B637 to B642 references relate to Pick numbers, and how to store banknotes covers keeping them that way.
Planet Banknote is a family-owned dealership in Sarasota, Florida, founded in 2021. Every note is sourced direct from mints, central banks, and authorized distributors, inspected through our Planet Banknote Verified process, and ships with a free Certificate of Authenticity. US orders ship free via USPS Priority, and every order includes a free bonus gift.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Syrian pound redenomination ratio?
One hundred old Syrian pounds convert to one new Syrian pound. Decree No. 293 of 2025 removed two zeros from every face value with effect from January 1, 2026, keeping the pound as the unit of account and defining the qirsh as one hundredth of a new pound. The central bank stated that the total money supply would be neither increased nor reduced by the change.
What are the new Syrian banknote denominations?
The Central Bank of Syria issued six notes dated 2025: 10, 25, 50, 100, 200 and 500 pounds, all introduced on January 1, 2026. The Banknote Book catalogs them as B637 through B642. All six measure 157 by 65 millimeters, are printed on paper by Goznak, and carry the same signature, which makes the launch series a closed set of exactly six pieces.
What is on Syria's new banknotes?
Each note pairs a Syrian crop with an animal on the front: roses and a butterfly on the 10, a mulberry branch on the 25, an orange tree branch and a conch shell on the 50, cotton bolls and an antelope on the 100, an olive branch and an Arabian horse head on the 200, and wheat spikes on the 500. All six share one back showing the Central Bank of Syria headquarters in Damascus and the Dome of the Treasury at the Umayyad Mosque. No portrait appears on any denomination.
When did Syria's old banknotes stop being legal tender?
The exchange opened on January 1, 2026 with a 90-day period of dual circulation, then ran through three extensions. The central bank extended the deadline by two months in late February, moved it to June 30 on May 1, and announced a final 30-day extension to July 31, 2026 on June 1. Under Decree No. 293 of 2025, the old pound lost legal tender status once the exchange deadlines expired.
Which old Syrian note does the new 500 pound note replace?
None directly. At 100 old pounds to one new pound, the new 500 stands for 50,000 old pounds, and the old series never printed a single note at that value. Its largest denomination was the 5,000, issued on January 24, 2021, which converts to 50 new pounds. Only the new 10 and the new 50 correspond exactly to an old 1,000 and an old 5,000 note.
Are the new Syrian banknotes worth collecting?
Collectors buy them for the history rather than as an investment. The 2026 series is a complete national issue introduced on a single day, with one date, one printer, one signature and only six denominations, which makes a type set finite and easy to define. The outgoing series is equally collectible for the opposite reason, because it closed on a known date and returned notes are being destroyed.
Who printed Syria's 2026 banknotes?
The Banknote Book records Goznak as the printer of all six denominations in the new series. At the December 28, 2025 press conference the governor said only that the notes were being printed by leading international companies to guard against counterfeiting, without naming a supplier. The central bank has published a security features brochure alongside the note images in its banknote gallery.