50 Mils Emergency Fractional Issue

Israel's first currency series, the Anglo-Palestine currency issued in 1948, was produced under considerable urgency — the State had declared independence in May of that year, and functional paper money was needed before the banking infrastructure was anywhere near settled. The fractional mils denominations, including this 50 Mils, were a direct consequence of the transition away from the Palestine Pound at parity, with small-denomination notes substituting for coins that simply hadn't been minted yet.

Otte Wallish, a German-born graphic artist who had emigrated to Mandatory Palestine in the 1930s, designed the entire inaugural series. His background in the Bauhaus-influenced European tradition is legible in the clean geometry of the layouts, unusual for emergency fractional paper of this period.