Palestine]
piastres—a sub-unit which does not exist as a coin. There are gold coins of 25, 50, 100, 250, and 500 piastres; silver of, 1, 2, 5, 10, and 20 piastres (1 mejidieh); nickel of, 1,, and 1 piastre (5, 10, 20, and 40 paras). In practice, Turkish gold is seldom seen, the commonest gold coin being the French 20-franc piece, which = 87½ gold piastres (£1 = 110 piastres, £T1 18¾s. 0 d.). Besides the silver and nickel coins, the old Turkish beshlik and beshlik, of an alloy of silver and copper, equivalent to 2 and 1 piastres, and the metallik (also alloy) of piastre or 10 paras, and multiples and sub-divisions of the latter, circulate widely. In foreign commerce prices are quoted in francs, and franc-pieces are also in use. There is a good deal of false coin about the country. Apart from the official values, for trading purposes various local rates were commonly used in expressing prices. Thus, while in Constantinople £T1 was reckoned at 108 market piastres, at Tripoli it was 123, at Aleppo 127, at Jaffa 141; and so firmly rooted were these current local rates that they came to be recognised even in the accounts of the banks. In 1916, however, order was introduced by a measure fixing the lira for all purposes at 100 piastres. For further information about this reform and the Turkish currency generally, see Turkey in Europe, No. 16 of this series, p. 129. Another innovation made during the war is less fortunate. Until 1914 the only notes in circulation were those of the Ottoman Bank. Since then the country has been flooded with paper of denominations down to 1 piastre, which, in spite of pains and penalties, the population persist in discounting heavily. In Syria, Government paper has been passing at about ¼ to 15 of its face value.
(3) Banking
Banks.—Seven banking companies are represented in the country:—
(i) Imperial Ottoman Bank. Branches at Aintab, Aleppo, Alexandretta, Beirut, Damascus, Haifa,
