Product Description
SCWPM.#44 - TBB.#B421a - Date: 1978 (1980)Grade: Unc. - Signature: 5
Description: Colour: Green. - Front: Wix Library building at Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot; Chaim Weizmann. - Back: Damascus Gate. - No security thread. - Watermark: Chaim Weizmann. - Printer: (JEZ). - Size: 141 x 76 mm. - Material: Paper.
General information: 1978 - 1979 “Sheqel” Issues
On 4 June 1969, the Knesset passed a law to replace the lira with the sheqel because the former unit of currency was derived from the Palestine lira of the British Mandate period, and the term lira was also used as a unit of currency in other countries. The sheqel appears in the bible as the unit of weight used during the period of the Second Temple. However, because conditions prevailing in the 1960s were not deemed ripe for change, implementation of the law was postponed to a later date. In May 1978, the time had come to implement the new law and to replace the lira with the sheqel. The new series of notes is like the preceding series (complete with bar codes on back), except one zero was dropped from the end of each denomination. Thus 10 lirot became 1 sheqel, 50 lirot became 5 sheqalim, 100 lirot became 10 sheqalim, and 500 lirot became 50 sheqalim. The first sheqel notes went into circulation on 24 February 1980.
Source: The Banknotebook.
