Catalog
50 Israeli Pounds Chaim Weizmann
| Issuer | Bank of Israel |
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| Year | 1968 |
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| Currency | Pound (1960-1980) |
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| Obverse description | An intaglio portrait of Chaim Weizmann (1874–1952), chemist, Zionist leader, and first President of Israel, is positioned centrally, facing three-quarters left, against a fine multicolour guilloche underprint. Hebrew inscriptions identifying the issuer and denomination appear to the right of the portrait, with the numeral 50 rendered in both Hebrew and Western digits. The date 1968 / התשכ"ח appears in the lower portion of the note. |
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| Obverse lettering | 50 בנק ישראל חמישים לירות ישראליות התשכ"ח 1968 (Translation: Bank of Israel Fifty Israeli Pounds) |
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| Comments |
The Canadian Bank Note Company's involvement in Israeli currency production during the 1960s was a direct result of the Bank of Israel's preference for North American security printing standards at a time when political sensitivities made European options complicated. Bessi and Baiardi, the two engravers credited, were staff engravers for CBNC who worked across numerous Commonwealth and postcolonial issues during the same period — their names appear on notes from several continents within this decade.
Chaim Weizmann, biochemist and first President of Israel, died in 1952. His appearance on this series reflects the Bank of Israel's deliberate policy of anchoring the currency to founding figures rather than to symbols of the state, a choice that distinguished Israeli note design from regional contemporaries.