Catalog
5 Palestine Pounds Provisional Issue
| Issuer | Anglo-Palestine Bank Limited |
|---|---|
| Year | 1948 |
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| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Palestine Pound (1948-1949) |
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| Obverse description | Emergency uniface provisional issue printed in brown letterpress on plain white paper, bearing trilingual text in Hebrew, English, and Arabic throughout. The bank name THE ANGLO-PALESTINE BANK LIMITED is centered across the upper portion, with serial number prefixes at upper left and lower right, and the denomination FIVE PALESTINE POUNDS rendered in all three languages surrounding a small central numeral vignette. A manuscript date of 16 May 1948 and place of issue Tel Aviv appear at upper right, accompanied by two handwritten authorizing signatures at lower left. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is intentionally blank, with no printed design; only a faint offset ghost impression of the obverse letterpress text is visible through the thin paper stock, consistent with the uniface emergency construction of this provisional wartime issue. |
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| Comments |
The Anglo-Palestine Bank was a commercial institution — not a central bank — yet found itself thrust into the role of currency issuer in May 1948 when the British Mandate ended and the State of Israel declared independence. The Palestinian pound, previously issued by the Palestine Currency Board in London, ceased to be produced. These provisional notes were an emergency stopgap, authorized under Israeli government instruction to keep money circulating while a proper state currency was designed and printed.
The "provisional" designation is literal: these were existing Anglo-Palestine Bank cheques overstamped and issued as legal tender. The arrangement lasted only until the Israeli pound was introduced in 1952.