1 Sheqel Sir Moses Haim Montefiore

The 1978 Israeli sheqel series — note the spelling, as Israel's pre-reform currency used "sheqel" before the 1985 introduction of the New Sheqel — was produced under contract with the Canadian Bank Note Company in Ottawa, a firm more commonly associated with Commonwealth issues. The choice was partly practical: CBNC had existing relationships with several Middle Eastern and developing-world central banks, and the Israeli notes required security specifications that domestic production couldn't reliably meet at scale.

Moses Montefiore was born in Livorno in 1784 and died in Ramsgate in 1885 — one hundred years, nearly to the day. His philanthropic work in Palestine, including funding residential quarters outside Jerusalem's Old City walls in the 1860s, made him a logical honoree for this denomination.