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1000 Pounds 2008, Lebanon

in Krause book Number: 84b
Years of issue: 2008
Edition: 17 851 151
Signatures: Ahmed Jachi, Riad T. Salameh
Serie: 2004 & 2008 "Euro Size" Issue
Specimen of: 2004
Material: Cotton fiber
Size (mm): 116 х 60
Printer: Giesecke und Devrient GmbH, Leipzig

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1000 Pounds 2008

Description

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1000 Pounds 2008

Phoenician alphabet

On background is the Phoenician alphabet.

The Phoenician alphabet, called by convention the Proto-Canaanite alphabet for inscriptions older than around 1050 BC, is the oldest verified alphabet. The Phoenician alphabet is an abjad consisting of 22 letters, all consonants, with matres lectionis used for some vowels in certain late varieties. It was used for the writing of Phoenician, a Northern Semitic language, used by the civilization of Phoenicia.

The Phoenician alphabet is derived from Egyptian hieroglyphs. It became one of the most widely used writing systems, spread by Phoenician merchants across the Mediterranean world, where it evolved and was assimilated by many other cultures. The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet is a local variant of the Phoenician alphabetical script. Another derivative script is the Aramaic alphabet, which was the ancestor of the modern Arabic script. The Modern Hebrew script is a stylistic variant of the Aramaic script. The Greek alphabet (and by extension its descendants, such as Latin, Cyrillic, Runic, and Coptic) was also derived from Phoenician.

As the letters were originally incised with a stylus, most of the shapes are angular and straight, although more cursive versions are increasingly attested in later times, culminating in the Neo-Punic alphabet of Roman-era North Africa. Phoenician was usually written from right to left, although there are some texts written in boustrophedon.

Denominations in numerals are in top left and lower right corners.

Revers:

1000 Pounds 2008

On background is, again, the Phoenician alphabet.

Phoenicianism is a form of Lebanese nationalism, first adopted by Lebanese Christians, primarily Maronites, at the time of the creation of Greater Lebanon. It constitutes identification of the Lebanese people with the ancient Phoenicians.

It often includes the view that Lebanese people, or sometimes exclusively just Lebanese Christians, are not Arabs and that the Lebanese speak a distinct language and have their own culture, separate from that of the surrounding Middle Eastern countries. Supporters of this theory of Lebanese ethnogenesis maintain that the Lebanese are descended from Phoenicians and are not Arabs. Some also maintain that Levantine Arabic is not an Arabic variety, rather a variation of Neo-Aramaic, but has become a distinctly separate language.

Cedrus libani

Left of center is Cedrus libani (Cedar of Lebanon).

The Lebanon cedar is the national emblem of Lebanon, and is displayed on the flag of Lebanon and coat of arms of Lebanon. It is also the logo of Middle East Airlines (MEA), which is Lebanon's national carrier. Beyond that, it is also the main symbol of Lebanon's "Cedar Revolution" of 2005, along with many Lebanese political parties and movements, such as the Kataeb Party, the Lebanese Forces, the National Liberal Party, and the Future Movement. Finally, Lebanon is sometimes metonymically referred to as the Land of the Cedars.

It is a species of cedar native to the mountains of the Eastern Mediterranean basin. It is an evergreen conifer, that can reach 40 meters in height. Cedrus libani is the national emblem of Lebanon and is widely used as an ornamental tree in parks and gardens.

Denominations in numerals are in top right and lower left corners, in words - at the bottom.

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