Palestine pound

Until 1918, Palestine was an integral part of the Ottoman Empire and therefore used its currency, the Ottoman lira. During 1917 and 1918, Palestine was occupied by the British army, who set up a military administration. The official currency was the Egyptian pound, which had been first introduced into Egypt in 1834, but several other currencies were legal tender at fixed exchange rates that were vigorously enforced.[2][3] After the establishment of a civil administration in 1921, the High Commissioner Herbert Samuel ordered that from 22 January 1921 only Egyptian currency and the British gold sovereign would be legal tender.[4]

In 1926, the British Secretary of State for the Colonies appointed a Palestine Currency Board to introduce a local currency.[5] It was based in London and chaired by Mr. P.G. Ezechiel, with a Currency Officer resident in Palestine.[5] The board decided that the new currency would be called the Palestine pound, fixed in value to the British pound and divided into 1000 mils.[6] The one pound gold coin would contain 123.27447 grains of standard gold.[6] The enabling legislation was the Palestine Currency Order, 1927, signed by the King in February 1927.[7] The Palestine pound became legal tender on 1 November 1927.[8] The Egyptian pound (at the fixed rate of 0.975 to the Palestine pound) and the British gold sovereign remained legal tender until 1 March 1928.[7][9]

The Palestine Currency Order explicitly excluded Transjordan from its application, but the Government of Transjordan decided to adopt the Palestine pound at the same time as Palestine did.[10][11] The Egyptian pound remained legal tender in Transjordan until 1930.[12]

All the denominations were trilingual in Arabic, English and Hebrew. The Hebrew inscription includes the initials Alef Yud after "Palestina", for "Eretz Yisrael" (Land of Israel).

It so happened that the new Palestinian currency was released, which was a great ordeal. The Palestinian currency which was coined especially for Palestine, and issued both in banknotes and coins, had the phrase “the land of Israel” written on it in Hebrew. Despite this hint, we accepted it, and the Arabs of Palestine dealt in it in what was almost an acknowledgment that Palestine was the land of Israel.

— Wasif Jawhariyyeh, The Storyteller of Jerusalem, page 698

The Currency Board was dissolved in May 1948, with the end of the British Mandate, but the Palestinian pound continued in circulation for transitional periods:

• Israel adopted the Israeli pound (or Israeli lira) in 1952. In August 1948, new banknotes were issued by the Anglo-Palestine Bank, owned by the Jewish Agency and based in London.

• Jordan adopted the Jordanian dinar in 1949.

• In the West Bank, the Palestine pound continued to circulate until 1950, when the West Bank was annexed by Jordan, and the Jordanian dinar became legal tender there. The Jordanian dinar is still legal tender in the West Bank along with the Israeli shekel.

• In the Gaza Strip, the Palestine pound continued to circulate until April 1951, when it was replaced by the Egyptian pound, three years after the Egyptian army took control of the territory.

The Oslo Accords (1993) provided that the Palestinian Authority will not issue its own currency and will use the Israeli or Jordanian currencies. Today, the Israeli new shekel and Jordanian dinar are the currencies in use in the Palestinian territories. The shekel is the main currency used in Gaza[13][14] and the primary currency for retail transactions in the West Bank. The dinar is used in the West Bank for savings and durable goods transactions.[1] The United States dollar is also sometimes used for savings and for purchasing foreign goods.[1] The Palestinian Authority can issue postage stamps and these are valued in terms of the Palestine pound, which Palestinian economists and officials regard to be a still-existent (though at present "dormant") currency, to be revived after Palestinian independence. In practice, prices in the Palestinian territories are quoted in Israeli currency.

The Palestinian Authority and Palestine Monetary Authority were considering issuing new banknotes and coins in 2010 and 2011[15] as part of a broader push by Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to make Palestine a viable independent state.[16] The PA and Palestinian Monetary Authority abandoned the idea of an independent Palestine pound in 2011.[17]

In 1927, coins were introduced in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 mils. The 1 and 2 mils were struck in bronze, whilst the 5, 10 and 20 mils were holed, cupro-nickel coins, except for during World War II, when they were also minted in bronze. The coin of 10 mils was also called a grush. The 50 and 100 mils coins were struck in .720 silver.

The last coins were issued for circulation in 1946, with all 1947 dated coins being melted down.

Palestine pound Coinage
Issued by the Palestine currency Board
Image	Value	Technical parameters			Description			Date of first issue	Dated years of issue
		Diameter	Mass	Composition	Edge	Obverse	Reverse
	1 mil	21 mm	3.23 g	Bronze	Plain	"Palestine" in Arabic, English, and Hebrew, year of minting. In Hebrew; also mentions in the acronym (א״י) for Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel).	Value in Arabic, English, and Hebrew, olive sprig	1927	1927, 1935, 1937, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, 1946
	2 mils	28 mm	7.77 g						1927, 1941, 1942, 1945, 1946
	5 mils	20 mm	2.91 g	Cupro-nickel			Value in Arabic, English, and Hebrew		1927, 1934, 1935, 1939, 1941, 1946
	5 mills	20 mm	2.9	Bronze				1942	1942, 1944
	10 mils	27 mm	6.47 g	Cupro-nickel				1927	1927, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1937, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1946
	10 mils	27 mm	6.47	Bronze				1942	1942, 1943
	20 mils	30.5 mm	11.33 g	Cupro-nickel				1927	1927, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1940, 1941
	20 mils	30.5 mm	11.3	Bronze				1942	1942, 1944
	50 mils	23.5 mm	5.83 g	720‰ Silver	Reeded	"Palestine" in Arabic, English, and Hebrew, year of minting, olive sprig. In Hebrew; also mentions in the acronym (א״י) for Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel).		1927	1927, 1931, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1939, 1940, 1942, 1943
	100 mils	29 mm	11.66 g
Issued by the State of Israel
Image	Value	Technical parameters			Description			Date of first issue	Dated years of issue
		Diameter	Mass	Composition	Edge	Obverse	Reverse
	1 pruta[18]	21 mm	1.3 g	Aluminum	Plain	Anchor; "Israel" in Hebrew and Arabic. The design is based on a coin of Alexander Jannaeus (76-103 BCE).	The denomination "1 Pruta" and the date in Hebrew; two stylized olive branches around the rim.	25 October 1950	5709 (1949)
	5 pruta	20 mm	3.2 g	Bronze		Four-stringed lyre; "Israel" in Hebrew and Arabic. The design is based on a coin from the Bar-Kochba Revolt (132-135CE).	The denomination "5 Pruta" and the date in Hebrew; two stylized olive branches around the rim.	28 December 1950
	10 pruta	27 mm	6.1g			Two-handled amphora; "Israel" in Hebrew and Arabic. The design is based on a coin from the Bar-Kochba Revolt (132-135CE).	The denomination "10 Pruta" and the date in Hebrew; two stylized olive branches around the rim.	4 January 1950
	25 mil	30 mm	3.8 g	Aluminum		Cluster of grapes, based on coins struck during the Bar-Kochba Revolt (132-135 CE); "Israel" in Hebrew above and in Arabic below.	The denomination "25 Mil" in Hebrew and Arabic; date in Hebrew below; two stylized olive branches around, based on coins struck during the Bar-Kochba Revolt (132-135 CE).	6 April 1949	5708 (1948), 5709 (1949)
	25 pruta	19.5 mm	2.8 g	Cupro-nickel	Reeded		Value and date in Hebrew within wreath.	4 January 1950	5709 (1949)
	50 pruta	23.5 mm	5.69 g			A Branch of Grape Leaves.	Value and date within wreath made up of two stylized olive branches that for a circle around perimeter.	11 May 1949
	100 pruta	2.4 mm	28.5 mm			Date palm tree with seven branches and two bunches of dates. Country name is listed in Hebrew and Arabic.	Value and date in Hebrew within wreath of stylized olive branches.	25 May 1949
	250 pruta	32.2 mm	14.1 g			Three palm branches; "Israel" in Hebrew and Arabic. The design is based on a coin minted during the Great Revolt (66 - 70 CE).	The denomination "250 Pruta" and the date in Hebrew; two stylized olive branches around the rim.	11 October 1950
These images are to scale at 2.5 pixels per millimetre. For table standards, see the coin specification table.

On 1 November 1927, banknotes were introduced by the Palestine Currency Board in denominations of 500 mils, 1, 5, 10, 50 and 100 pounds. Notes were issued with dates as late as 15 August 1945.[19]

Palestine pound Banknotes
Issued by the Palestine currency Board
Image		Value	Dimensions	Main Colour	Description			Date of first issue	Quantity circulated at the end of the Mandate
Obverse	Reverse				Obverse	Reverse	Watermark
		500 mils	127 × 76 mm	Purple	Rachel's Tomb	Citadel and Tower of David	Olive sprig	1 September 1927	1,872,811
		1 pound	166 × 89 mm	Yellowish green	Dome of the Rock				9,413,578
		5 pounds	192 × 103 mm	Red	Tower of Ramla				3,909,230
		10 pounds		Blue					2,004,128
		50 pounds		Purple					20,577
		100 pounds		Green					1,587
"Palestine" in Arabic, English, and Hebrew. In Hebrew; also mentions in the acronym (א״י) for Eretz Yisrael (Land of Israel).
Issued by the Anglo-Palestine Bank (State of Israel)
Image		Value	Dimensions	Main Colour	Description			Date of
Obverse	Reverse				Obverse	Reverse		Issue	Ceased to be legal tender
		500 mils[18]	148 x 72 mm	Grey-pink	Guilloches; the denomination and "The Anglo-Palestine Bank Limited" in Hebrew and English.	Guilloches; the denomination and "The Anglo-Palestine Bank Limited" in Arabic and English.		18 August 1948	23 June 1952
		1 pound	100 x 75 mm	Blue-green
		5 pounds	105 x 68 mm	Brown
		10 pounds	150 x 80 mm	Red
		50 pounds	159 x 84 mm	Violet

The 100 pound note was equivalent to 40 months’ wages of a skilled worker in Palestine.[20] Currently six of them are unaccounted for and four are known to exist in the hand of collectors. Their serial numbers and dates are:

• A000719 - 1 September 1927
• A000935 - 1 September 1927
• A001020 – 30 September 1929
• A001088 – 30 September 1929

• The History of British Currency in the Middle East
• Economy of Israel
• Economy of the Palestinian territories
• Economy of Jordan

• Circulated coins of Palestine 1927-1946