Syria, 2 Pounds (Lira) 1996

Syria’s 2 pound coin, sometimes known also as lira, for 1996 combines the country’s Arab present and Roman past. The obverse shows the Hawk of Quraish, widely used on flags and coins in the Arabian Peninsula, and which is an important symbol of Arabism. On the reverse is the Roman Theatre at Bosra in the south west of the country near the border with Jordan. The theatre was built in the latter half of the second century and even back then it could sit 17,000. It is now one of the best preserved monuments of its kind in what was the Roman Empire.