 Martin_S.'s Israel Travelogues | | | |
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| Page Views: 1,933 Last Visit to Israel: 2002 I Used To Live Here | MONEY by Martin_S. - last update: Sep 10, 2002 |
Money, the one thing you need wherever you travel, well the money in Israel has undergone some changes over the years. In 1948 the money was the Lira and the denominations smaller than a single lira were called Prutot (the Lira was divided into 100 prutot). I have a few of those coins, it is extremely difficult to find them today. In the top left hand corner are telephone coins, used in public telephone booths. You could not use credit cards or regular coins, you had to find a place that sold these special coins. |
And along with the devaluation came bigger bills, the Shekel now had 1,000 and 5,000 denominations. |
And here we go again. Another devaluation in 1980, or was it 1981. Anyway once again the government decides to make new script, now we have (drum roll here) The New Israel Shekel. Take a close look, the government is getting smarter, they are printing coins that have "special" markings, like faces or special symbols to celebrate holidays or special dates, like Independence day. They are collected not only by Numismatics, but also by everyday folk. |
These are the smaller bills, you should take into account that as the money is used over a period of time these bills have been also discontinued and these denominations are coins. You can see them in the previous picture as 1, 5 and 10 New Shekel. |
For whatever reason when the New Shekel started the lower grey colored bill was used, then for some reason they changed it into the greenie above it, today you can use only the greenie. |
Here again you can see the older 50 New Shekel bill, this time on the top, later replaced by the one on the bottom. |
OOOPs, ran out of bills, I will put a pic of the 100 and 200 New Israel Shekel bills when I get some. I may have to rob a bank though. |
These are some of the Lira bills used till the 1970's, the bills were huge. If you were to compare the 100 lira bill to an American dollar, they were almost half again as long and wide. They could not fit in a normal billfold unless you folded them. |
These are the smaller denominations, as you can see each and every bill was of a different size, I guess that would be good if you need to find a particular bill in the dark. |
Then the money was changed to New Lirot, these are the coins. |
These are the small denomination New Lirot. |
And of course the larger denominations. Take a look at the bills, do they remind you of the bills from an earlier series. |
Then the money got devalued again. A new series hit the market, the Shekel (this was the name of the money used in the ancient streets of Jerusalem more than 2,000 years ago. The coins once again divided the Shekel into 100 Agorot. |
These are the smallest denominations of the paper Shekel. You will notice that now the bills are physically all the same size and the size is close the the US$ |
These two bills were different sizes for the Shekel. |
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 Comments for Martin_S. about Israel | | | | |
i-s-a Mon May 19, 2008 07:13 UTC
halu martin! how is my friend doing? i hope everything is great over there. here it's sunny after a weekend of stormy weather. | ezaguryk Sat Apr 12, 2008 23:55 UTC
wow.... so many information, i will love to go back again to israel..... some day..... you should plan also a travel to latin america you will find a paradise here............shalom | ChristinaNest Tue Mar 20, 2007 14:02 UTC
So many interesting sites, I'd love to visit Massada and the other ruins, as well as the dessert! greets from Sofia | blue_sky04 Sun Feb 4, 2007 04:55 UTC
Hi Martin, would you like some stamps from Indonesia? I can mail them to you. My younger sister also collects stamps & she is member of philately group here. I'll give you some Indonesian coins & bills for your collection next time I go to Israel :-) |
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