Ancient Coins of Palestine

For more than half a century prior to the termination of the British mandate over Palestine in 1948, Zionist leaders had sought to create a Jewish homeland for Jews who were dispersed throughout the world. For almost as long, Jews fleeing persecution had immigrated to Palestine. The Nazi persecutions of the 1930s and 1940s increased the Jewish movement to Palestine and generated international support for the creation of a Jewish state. The state of Israel was proclaimed as the Jewish state in the territory that was Palestine. The remainder of that territory was occupied by Jordanian and Egyptian armies. Israel demonetized the coins of Palestine on Sept. 15, 1948, the Jordan government declared Palestine currency no longer legal tender on June 30, 1951, and Egypt declared it no longer legal tender in Gaza on June 9, 1951.

The ottoman levant was an integral part of the Ottoman Empire until 1918 and hence used the ottoman lira as its currency. This formed an imminent part of the old Palestine coin system. After the formation of the British Mandate for Palestine, the Egyptian pound was circulated alongside the Ottoman lira. This created an unbalance in the Palestine coins and required a currency reform. Palestine pound was introduced by the British. All Palestine coins were trilingual in Arabic, English and Hebrew. Presently the Israeli new shekel and Jordanian dinar form Palestine coins and currency.

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