T-shirt Israeli Shekel

  • Brand: Gezer Land
  • Product Code: M005W
  • Availability: In Stock
$30 $25 Ex Tax: $25



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White T-shirt with the national currency of Israel - New Israeli Shekel


100% Cotton. Two colours screen print. Print size: 20*30cm

Made in Israel


The Shekel in the Past and Now

The shekel, which is formerly known as the new Israeli sheqel, is the currency of this amazing and great country – Israel. It has a long story: the first Israeli pound turned into the modern sheqel and 3 series of banknotes replaced each other bringing something new to the appearance and leaving something old to loved and respected traditions.

The story of Shekel origin

The currency sign ₪ presents itself a combination of the first Hebrew letters of such words as shekel ש and hadash ×—, while the name itself came from the ancient currency known from the Bible as having the same name. In general shekel is a unit of weight and so, at first, it was applied to a barley weight. In ancient times, it weighed 11 grams of it. 

How the Israeli pound became the shekel?

When the modern Israeli state was formed in 1948, the government introduced the currency, which was pegged to the British pound. That is how the story began. The Israeli pound existed until 1980, when it was finally replaced by shekel. In 1955, the Israel National Bank started to issue first banknotes, although the Hebrew name still wasn’t used. It caused a lot of debates and so the minister of Finance had to insist on name changing. At that time 1 shekel was equal to 10 pounds.

The old shekel, as it is known nowadays, existed from 1980 up to 1985. It experienced several devaluations and even hyperinflation, but that is how the modern shekel was introduced. 

3 series of banknotes

The story of banknotes is even more thrilling as they depict people being important for nation and the country in general. For example, the first green banknotes of 1 note, which appeared in 1986, had the picture of Jewish philosopher and astronomer Maimonides. The second 5 note showed the third Prime Minister of Israel Levi Eshkol, while the 10 note had the image of the Israeli teacher, stateswoman and fourth Prime Minister of Israel Golda Meir. They all existed only up to 1999.

The second B series was released in 1999 and exist up to the present: green 20 notes with the picture of Moshe Sharett, the second Prime minister of Israel; purple 50 notes depicting Shmuel Yosef Agnon, the Nobel Prize laureate and the central figure in the modern Hebrew fiction; brown 100 notes showing Yetzhak Ben-Zvi, the longest-serving President of Israel.

The last C series were introduced in absolutely new design in 2012 – they bear the portraits of famous Hebrew poets such as Leah Goldberg or Nathan Alterman.

The love of the great nation to the country is felt everywhere: from the sincere desire to have the own currency name in 1980 to the portraits of respected political leaders and people of art. 


Currency calculator: Shekel / Dollar / Euro / Ruble

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