Changing money in Syria: where and how
A licensed office, the day’s market rate and always a receipt: the three rules. Which districts to change in, where the rate lives, what happens at exit.
The money page covers what to bring; this page covers how to change it. Three rules hold in every city: change at a licensed office, learn the day’s rate first, keep the receipt.
Where to change
Exchange companies and offices licensed by the central bank exist, and the current list is published on the bank’s own site (cb.gov.sy). They concentrate in Damascus first and Aleppo second. In Damascus the branches cluster along Salhiyah, Baghdad Street and 29 May Street; in Aleppo the Baghdad Station district is the known address. Around the souks freelance changers are everywhere and their rates can look tempting — street exchange is formally illegal and comes without a receipt. Hotels commonly broker an exchange; practical, but also receipt-free. Change the big sum at a licensed office.
Where the rate lives
The working standard is sp-today.com, which publishes the daily market rate as buy and sell, gold prices too. On 28 August 2026 the dollar stood at about 131 pounds and the euro at about 152 (buy and sell sit half a pound apart). Check it right before you change and hold the changer’s quote against it. A gap between the official and market rates still exists: on 12 August 2026 the central bank quoted 122 while the market ran around 131 — some 8 percent. The spread has narrowed a great deal but has not closed; changing at a bank at the official rate costs you that gap.
Banknote fussiness
What gets changed is dollars and euros; not every office takes other currencies, so carry your main money in dollars. The dollars that pass are the blue-strip new-series 100s; torn, marked or old-series notes come back or go at a bad rate. Alongside clean 50s and 100s, mix in small notes for the market. Count your stack yourself at the counter, without hurry, and refuse old-series pounds in your change — after the two zeros came off in January 2026, the old notes left circulation. The new denominations are 10, 25, 50, 100, 200 and 500 pounds; the 100s and 200s do most of the daily work.
On the way out
Syrian pounds do not change abroad; the one documented exception is the offices of Beirut. To convert pounds back at exit you are asked for official exchange receipts — that is why you keep them. The cleanest arithmetic is need-based: do not change everything at once, do not stockpile pounds, and reach the border with none left in hand.
Tips
- Get the rate from sp-today.com; on 28 August 2026 the dollar stood at 131 pounds
- The licensed-office list is on the central bank's site: cb.gov.sy
- Carry your main money in dollars; not every office takes other currencies
- Bring clean blue-strip 100s; a torn note comes back
- The official rate runs about 8 percent under the market — changing at a bank costs you that
- Keep every receipt; it is the condition for converting back at exit
Transparency
- How this was chosen
- This page carries the fastest-ageing information on the site: visa rules, exchange rates, border crossings and SIM prices change several times a year. The verification date above says when the facts were last put through their sources; for anything later, check your own foreign ministry travel advice and a Syrian consulate. No figure that is not known for certain is written here.
- Facts checked
- August 2026
- Last updated
- August 28, 2026