Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
1 Lira Hanukkah - Maccabean Hero
| Issuer | Bank of Israel |
|---|---|
| Year | 1961 |
| Type | Non-circulating coin |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Weight | Log in to see details |
| Diameter | Log in to see details |
| Thickness | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Technique | Log in to see details |
| Orientation | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse script | Hebrew, Arabic |
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Within a bold incuse diamond-shaped panel set against the round field, a war elephant bearing a castellated battle tower is depicted in vigorous low relief, commemorating the Maccabean battle of Beth Zechariah as described in I Maccabees. The elephant strides forward with trunk raised, while a single Maccabean warrior, Eleazar Avaran, is shown crouching beneath the beast and thrusting upward with a spear, referencing his heroic act of self-sacrifice. The composition is rendered in a bold, stylized ancient Near Eastern artistic manner, with no inscriptions on this face. |
| Reverse script | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Edge | Log in to see details |
| Mint | Log in to see details |
| Mintage | Log in to see details |
| Additional information |
Israel's Hanukkah coin series, issued annually from 1958 onward, was conceived as a cultural project as much as a monetary one — each year drawing on a different historical period of Jewish lamp tradition. The 1961 issue references the Maccabean revolt of the 2nd century BCE, the very event Hanukkah commemorates, making it one of the more historically pointed entries in the series.
KM#34 was struck at the Utrecht Mint in the Netherlands, Israel lacking sufficient domestic minting capacity at the time.