The term ‘shekel’ comes from ancient Biblical currency. The sign of new shekel is the combination of the first Hebrew letters of the words shekel and ?adash. The official international currency code of the Israeli new shekel is ILS The economic crisis of the 1980s brought more careful and conservative fiscal and monetary policies in terms of new shekel currencies. It introduced coins in denominations of 1 agora, 5 agorot, 10 agorot, ILS 1/2, ILS 1. Later, in 1990 ILS 5 coins were introduced which followed by ILS 10 coins in 1995. The obverse of ILS ½ depicts Lyre and the state emblem while the reverse shows Value, date, "Israel" in Hebrew, Arabic and English. The earliest evidence of Lyre string instrument is found in Greek classical antiquity and later periods. The first time lyre was mentioned in Old Testimony. It was also depicted in the Bar Kochba coins. It has been believed as the "national instrument" of the Jewish people. Image Courtesy: Wikimedia.com