1 New Shekel Kibbutz Nir Eliyahu

Kibbutz scrip occupies a genuinely odd corner of Israeli monetary history. During the decades when kibbutzim operated as fully closed economies, many issued their own internal currency for use at the communal store, dining hall, or kiosk — members received no cash wages, so tokens and notes like this one substituted for pocket money within the perimeter of the kibbutz. Nir Eliyahu, founded in 1950 in the Sharon region, was among those that issued paper denominations rather than the more common aluminum or plastic tokens.

These scrip notes were never legal tender and carried no value outside the issuing kibbutz. Most were discarded when the kibbutz privatized or abandoned its internal currency system, which makes surviving examples disproportionately scarce relative to how many were once in active daily use.