He could only withdraw 200,000 Syrian pounds (around $20) for the week. Still, as a state employee and a patron of one of Syria’s six state-owned banks, Elias was luckier than many others. AdvertisementA man reloads an ATM’s depleted stock of Syrian pounds in Damascus. The face of ousted Syrian President Bashar Assad decorates Syrian pounds. After waiting for almost four hours, and forced to switch queues twice before he encountered a functional ATM, he withdrew his Syrian pounds for the day.