Binyamin Ze’ev Herzl, Yitzchak Rabin, Menachem Begin and David Ben-Gurion are in, while Zalman Shazar, Yitzchak Ben-Tzvi, Moshe Sharet and author Shai Yosef Agnon are out.
The Bank of Israel and the Finance Ministry are working together towards introducing a major change in Israel’s currency. All of the existing bills will be replaced with new ones after Bank of Israel Governor Prof. Stanley Fischer and Finance Minister Dr. Yuval Shteinitz agreed on the move.
The new bills will be introduced into the economy gradually, beginning in 2012. Today, there are an estimated 300 million bills in circulation and replacing them will cost the state NIS hundreds of millions.
According to reports, the State of Israel holds the world record for changing bills, with the last changeover occurring on July 1, 2000, a move that is still in progress, expected to reach completion in July 2010. Israel also holds the record for changing the heads of state appearing on bills.
The new bills will be improved and significantly more difficult to counterfeit. Special polymer paper will be used, as is the case with the new NIS 20 notes. Experts add the polymer is also significantly longer lasting and therefore a bill will stand the test of wear and tear during its years in circulation.
The new currency will most likely include a new NIS 500 note, which will bear the picture of either Yitzchak Rabin or Menachem Begin. A previous attempt to include Begin on state currency was met with objections from the later prime minister’s family.
Currently, the largest bill in the country is a NIS 200 note.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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5 Responses
I don’t know why they can’t stick with one bill.
Makes you think they don’t believe in the Shekel…
They probably don’t!
#1 what are you saying? all they are doing is putting other people on the bill in order to honor the memory of Israeli leaders
avreich man, if you follow the Forex charts, you’ll see that the Shekel has been consistently gaining lots of ground against the (mighty) US $ and the British Pound during the past 2 years. They HAVE to believe in it!
It’s so crazy that the largest bill is 200 shekels. That’s 36 EUR / 52 USD.
Also it’s funny in Israel how taxi drivers consider a 100-shekel bill too big to be acceptable as payment for a short ride. It’s just 18 EUR / 26 USD – that’s considered a lot, big money???
Guys, Guys! (I.E. 1-3) the reason for the change is because of the counterfeiters. There’s a constant battle to foil their attempts to counterfeit. I’ve seen some counterfeit bills and you’d be amazed how good a job they do.
It’s an unfortunate necessary evil. 🙁