1 Sheqel Hanukka - Prague Lamp

Israel's Hanukkah lamp series, begun in 1958, documents surviving Judaica from museum collections worldwide — each annual silver issue spotlighting a distinct menorah from a different country and century. The Prague lamp selected for this 1983 issue originates from the Jewish community of Bohemia, a community that endured repeated expulsions and a ghetto existence stretching back to the medieval period before achieving legal emancipation only in the mid-nineteenth century.

The series shifted to the sheqel denomination following Israel's 1980 currency reform, which replaced the pound at par before rampant inflation forced yet another redenomination — the new sheqel — just two years after this coin was struck.