5 Agorot Israel's 40th Anniversary

Israel's 40th anniversary in 1988 fell during a period of acute economic turbulence — the country had only recently emerged from a hyperinflationary crisis that peaked in 1984 and 1985, when annual inflation exceeded 450%. The stabilization program of 1985 slashed subsidies and froze wages, and the new shekel introduced that year was still finding its footing when this commemorative circulating issue was struck.

The copper-aluminium-nickel alloy used here was itself a product of that reform period's cost-conscious approach to coinage metallurgy.