500 Israeli Old Shekel Banknote (1978 To 1984 Issue)

500 Sheqalim Sheqel (Issued 1982)

Issued during one of the most turbulent monetary periods in Israeli history, the 500 Sheqalim note of 1982 stands as a document of the short-lived Sheqel era — a currency so rapidly eroded by hyperinflation that it was replaced entirely by the New Sheqel just four years later. A currency specialist examining this note would immediately recognise its place within the Bank of Israel’s 1980 Sheqel Reform series, which replaced the Israeli Pound at a rate of ten to one. The bold, oversized denomination numeral and the distinctly warm rose-red palette give the note an immediately striking visual identity among Israeli issues of the twentieth century. Its short circulation window and subsequent withdrawal make it a concrete artefact of Israel’s economic transformation in the early 1980s.

On the front, the dominant feature is the finely engraved portrait of Baron Edmond de Rothschild, the French-Jewish philanthropist who played a foundational role in financing early Jewish agricultural settlements in Ottoman Palestine. His image is rendered in considerable detail to the right of centre, showing an elderly gentleman with a full white beard, rendered through fine intaglio line engraving that captures the texture of his beard and the gentle modelling of his face. The note is printed predominantly in shades of deep rose-red and warm pink, with pale cream paper providing contrast. To the left of the portrait, a vignette scene depicts early agricultural settlers at work alongside a modest structure, consistent with the Zionist pioneer imagery associated with Rothschild’s patronage of the first aliyah settlements. Above this scene, geometric and guilloché patterns in muted tones provide background security texture. A small green printed element is visible among the background patterning. In the upper left, the year 1982 appears in Hebrew characters alongside the corresponding Gregorian date. The lower portion of the note carries the Bank of Israel name in large Hebrew script — בנק ישראל — and the denomination חמש מאות שקלים (five hundred sheqalim) in bold red lettering. The numeral 500 appears prominently in the upper left and lower right. Two signature lines are visible in the central lower area, corresponding to the Governor and the Chairman of the Advisory Council of the Bank of Israel, printed in black. A small Star of David motif is visible to the left of centre as part of the note’s decorative typography elements.

The reverse presents a bold and botanically detailed composition centred on a large cluster of grapes accompanied by broad vine leaves rendered in deep red and green tones against a pale pink background filled with fine guilloché underprint work. The grape cluster, hanging heavily from a vine, is depicted with considerable engraving detail, each individual grape rendered with tonal variation to suggest volume. The vine leaves spread outward from the central bunch in layered green and red tones, occupying much of the upper half of the reverse. In the upper left, the issuing authority is identified in English as “BANK OF ISRAEL” and in Arabic as بنك إسرائيل, both in red. The serial number 0272300868 appears twice — once beneath the bank name on the left and once on the right side of the note — printed in red. The large numeral 500 appears in the upper right corner and again in a bold red typeface at the lower left. The word SHEQALIM is printed in red along the lower centre, while the Arabic equivalent שקל appears at the lower right in red script, maintaining the note’s trilingual character across Hebrew, English, and Arabic.

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Other Israeli Old Sheqalim you can exchange: 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, 1000, 5000, 10000.