1 New Sheqel Maimonides

Maimonides — Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon — was born in Córdoba in 1138 and died in Egypt in 1204, yet Israel chose him for coinage nearly eight centuries later partly due to his outsized influence on Jewish law and medieval philosophy. The 1988 issue coincided with the second phase of Israel's currency reform, which had replaced the old pound-based sheqel with the New Sheqel just three years earlier in 1985, following inflation that had reached roughly 450% annually at its peak.