20 Lirot 12th Anniversary of Independence - Theodore Herzl Centenary

Herzl died in 1904 at 44, his Zionist project widely dismissed as utopian fantasy. Israel's decision to mark the centenary of his birth with a gold issue in 1960 — just twelve years into statehood — carried deliberate weight: the state was, in effect, issuing receipts for a prophecy fulfilled. The KM#30 was struck in 22-karat gold at the hand of a young mint still developing its technical infrastructure, and the series it belongs to established the pattern of anniversary gold issues that the Bank of Israel would continue for decades.