My cash - Banknotes

The Bank of Israel holds the sole legal authority to issue currency, meaning legal tender (banknotes, coins, commemorative coins, and special coins), in Israel. The Currency Department’s functions include the issuance of currency and the regulation and management of the currency system, ensuring the orderly supply of cash to the economy in accordance with demand and supply.

Third Series of the New Shekel, 2014

The banknotes in the Third Series of the New Shekel carry the portraits of outstanding Hebrew poets whose life stories, works, and activities are intertwined with the story of the rebirth of the Nation of Israel in its land.

The banknotes in the series incorporate advanced levels of security, innovation, and accessibility.

They include a range of advanced anti-counterfeiting security features and integrate specific features to facilitate use by the blind and vision impaired.

The first denomination of the third series of the New Shekel, the NIS 50 banknote, was put into circulation in September 2014 (Elul 5774).

 

See
Feel
Tilt
  • Portrait of

    Nathan Alterman
  • Designer

    Ms. Osnat Eshel
  • Dimensions

    150mm x 71mm
  • Issue date

    December 2015.
  • Color

    Blue
  • Design of edge

    Moonlit flora inspired by the poem "Eternal Meeting" and an excerpt from the poem “Morning Song”.

Nathan Alterman (1910-1970), one of the greatest modern Israeli poets, was also a translator, journalist, playwright, and songwriter. Born in Warsaw, Poland, he immigrated to Israel with his family in 1925 and settled in Tel Aviv. Alterman was awarded numerous prizes for his literary works and translations, among them the Tchernichovsky Prize for Outstanding Translations (1946, 1968), the Ruppin Prize (1947), the Bialik Belles-Lettres Prize (1957), and the Israel Prize for Literature, for his lifetime achievement (1968).

Alterman’s writing is rich and variegated. It includes Hebrew poetry, plays, songs, and children’s songs alongside contemporary issues and prose. His writing strongly influenced modern Hebrew poetry and is considered innovative and groundbreaking. His first book of poems, Stars Outside, was first published in 1938 and was lauded as a great innovation in Hebrew poetry due to its language, which was rich in linguistic imagery and dual meanings that could be read into his poems. Many of Alterman’s poems are well-known. Among these are: “Still the Tune Returns” - the opening poem of his book “Stars Outside”, “Eternal Meeting”, “Preservation Song”, “Eliphelet”, “Anemones”, “Song of Three Answers” and many more. Among his better-known and more successful plays, which have been presented at the Cameri and Habima theaters, are the plays “Kinneret Kinneret”, “The Inn of Ghosts” and “King Solomon and Shalmai the Cobbler”. Besides his original writing, Alterman was a copious translator of masterpieces of world literature including children’s songs, and plays by Shakespeare, Racine, and Moliere.

The NIS 200 banknote from the third series of the New Shekel is dedicated to Nathan Alterman’s work. The note’s obverse bears the poet's portrait and the words of the poem “Eternal Meeting” in microtext. The poem was given numerous interpretations due to its ambiguity. It includes verses mentioning the forces of nature, the night, and the moon. These were the inspiration for the layout of the NIS 200 banknote, the interplay between the autumn leaves on the obverse and the moonlit flora on the reverse. A verse out of Alterman’s poem “Morning Song” also appears on the obverse: “We love you our motherland, joyously, with our song and with our labor”.

Related links and further information on Nathan Alterman:

Nathan Alterman on Wikipedia
Nathan Alterman website
(in Hebrew)
Lexicon of Modern Hebrew Literature 
(in Hebrew)
Israeli Institute for Hebrew Literature

Bank of Israel cash desk

The Currency Department provides a money-changing service to the public, for exchanging Israeli currency for larger or smaller denominations, at the cash desk in the Bank of Israel's Jerusalem headquarters. Damaged currency can also be changed at the cash desk. The cash desk is open to the public:

Sunday through Thursday, 8:00–13:00

Address: 2 Eliezer Kaplan Street, Kiryat Ben-Gurion, Jerusalem.

Phone: 02-655-2847

Please arrange your appointment in advance.

 

Public Enquiries for the Currency Department

For public enquiries relating to currency: contact_currency@boi.org.il

Phone number: +972-2-655-2874

 

Accessibility In The New Bank Notes

The issue of accessibility in general, concerning all populations, was a major consideration for the Bank of Israel throughout the planning of the new series of banknotes, and will continue to be a priority in the future. Because of the importance attached by the Bank of Israel to the subject of accessibility in general, and its application to the blind and vision impaired in particular, the Bank has acted to increase the accessibility of the new series of banknotes.