I have a coin, and the only word I can read is "Israel". I'm posting a pic of it, can anyone tell me anything about it?
This coin is a Sheqel.The plural of 'Sheqel' is 'Sheqalim'.As to the date,I am not certain,as Hebrew is a language I cannot read. Aidan.
Well, I have a small number of Israeli coins, and the only one I have that has that little menorah icon on it is a 25th anniversary coin, so maybe the date is 1973. The small menorah icon, that is. The one next to the '1'. I also do not read hebrew. Just a guess.
So I have a 1981 shequel? Any chance it's rare? No, I didn't think so!! I bought a bag of coins on ebay and don't recognize 95% of them, but then I know very little about coins. Even if not rare they're cool!
hi Heinton, first of all, welcome to the forum,... forgot to welcome u earlier. book value for your coin is less than $1 in uncirculated condition... so it can't be rare. well, doesn't matter whether 'rare or not' as long as you like your coins and enjoy collecting. Any coins you have problems identifying, u can always post at Coin Talk. We have lots of guys here willing to help out.
Heinton and All - Hi from Israel, Hope not to bore you all so please excuse me for writing in length: The Israeli Shekel is the third out of four monetary systems which were used solely in the land of Israel during the 20th and 21st centuries. Until British (1918) rule the Ottoman coinage + other European coins were used in a big mishmash metal based system. The British established the Bank of Palestine and issued the Palestine Pound which was divided into 1000 units of Mil. Coins and notes were issued. The Pound was as the value of the British Pound. Thus the 50 Mil coin was called by people "shilling" (being 1/20 of the pound). When the state of Israel was founded the Israeli Lirah was launched. It was divided to 1000 Prutah and started as a direct continue to the Palestine Pound in coins' sizes and value. In the beginning of the '60 the Prutah was cancelled and from that time the Lira was divided to 100 Agorah (and in Plural - Agorot). After moving to a less of a centralized economic system in the late '70 the Lirah suffered from high speed devaluation. in 1980 The Shekel (The very coin you have) was introduced. Israelis converted 10 Lirah for every Shekel the got from the bank. This psychological act was not accompanied with other measures and inflation kept a somewhat frantic course. By 1984 we already had a 100 Shekels coins and an inflation rate which almost reached an annual rate of400%. On 1984 the New Israeli Shekel was introduced and was an equal of 1000 old shekels. It was accompanied with some strict government actions. Prices were fixed by law and pricing tags were obligatory. When merchants were found overpricing or not showing price labels they were fined. After 2-3 years the price supervision was cancelled and since then we still use the New Shekel as our currency. All coins of the state of Israel have on their backs motifs from Ancient Israeli coins from different stages of independent or semi independent periods of Jewish people during the first century B.C. and 1-2 centuries A.D. The Shekel you have has a symbol that was used on the Prutah coin (So I think - am not an expert of ancient coins) from the first rebellion against the Romans on 67 A.D. Avi
WOW, the things I learn! Thanks for sharing that info, it's really interesting. Can you translate the writing on the coin?
With pleasure: To the left of 1: Shekel below of 1: on the right side: Israel in Arabic (One of three official languages in Israel - English and Hebrew are the other two). Just Below 1: Israel (in Hebrew) Below of 1, on the left: The date (in Hebrew letters): 5741 (to creation) = 1980/1981 A.D. Above the chalice: Could be translated as Shekel, Israel or as Israeli Shekel. Avi
You might also try a library for a copy of the Standard Catalog of World Coins, the world coin collector's best general reference. Used and new copies are available on half.com and ebay.com, for examples.
