2 New Shekels Israel's 70th Anniversary

Israel's 70th anniversary fell in 2018 under a Hebrew calendar that placed independence in 5778, a discrepancy that requires commemorative programs to straddle two Gregorian years. The Bank of Israel has issued anniversary coinage since the early state period, but the 70th cycle drew an unusually concentrated release schedule across multiple denominations and themes — this piece being one of several silver issues in that program.

KM#561 is among the more straightforward modern Israeli commemoratives to attribute, largely because the ICMC catalog number cross-references cleanly with Bank of Israel mintage records.