Room III · Numismatic History

The Only Money Ever Named "Palestine" Reads, in Hebrew, "Land of Israel."

The complete monetary ledger of this territory — twenty-six centuries, every circulating currency, each entry attributed to its issuing authority, with the Palestinian issues totalled at the end. The total is brief.

2,600 Years on the ledger

16 Entries, all issuers

1 Currency named "Palestine"

0 Issued by a Palestinian state

The right to mint coin is, in classical political theory, the first prerogative of sovereignty. Jean Bodin lists it among the eight marques of the sovereign; Grotius and Vattel concur.¹ Sovereignty, conveniently, audits itself: one need only collect the money.

The audit follows — every currency to circulate in this territory across 2,600 years, in order, each attributed to its issuing authority. The catalogue is for reference.

¹ J. Bodin, Les Six Livres de la République (1576), I.x, on coinage among the marks of sovereignty; H. Grotius, De Jure Belli ac Pacis (1625); E. de Vattel, Le Droit des Gens (1758).

The Registry of Issue

The Ledger

Readers pressed for time are directed to the right-hand column. It does not change.

Circulating currency of the territory, 539 BCE – MMXXVI, by issuing authority
Period	Currency	Issuing authority	Palestinian issue
539–332 BCE	Daric & siglos. Gold and silver; the kneeling royal archer.	Achaemenid Persia; principal mint at Sardis	None
4th c. BCE	Yehud silver. Small coins inscribed YHD — "Judah."	The province of Judah, under Persian licence	None
332–140 BCE	Tetradrachm. Alexandrine, then Ptolemaic, then Seleucid; Greek legends.	Macedon; Alexandria; Antioch	None
140–37 BCE	Hasmonean prutah. Bronze; Paleo-Hebrew: "…the High Priest and the Council of the Jews."	The Hasmonean state, Jerusalem	None
126 BCE–66 CE	Tyrian shekel. Head of Melqart; the coin prescribed for the Temple tax in Jerusalem.	The city of Tyre	None
63 BCE–324 CE	Denarius & provincial bronze. Imperial portraits; Latin and Greek.	Rome	None
66–70 CE	Revolt shekel. "Shekel of Israel"; "Jerusalem the Holy"; on the bronze, "Freedom of Zion."	The Jewish rebel government, Jerusalem	None
132–135 CE	Bar-Kokhba silver. Overstruck Roman denarii: "Year One of the Redemption of Israel."	The administration of Shimʿon bar Kokhba	None
324–636 CE	Solidus & follis. Greek legends; imperial busts.	Byzantium	None
636–1099	Dinar, dirham, fals. Umayyad copper fulus carry the mint name Filasṭīn; Abbasid and Fatimid gold retains it. The issuer sat elsewhere.	Umayyad, Abbasid & Fatimid caliphates — Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo	None
1099–1291	Bezant. Imitation Fatimid gold; Arabic legends, Frankish hands.	The Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem	None
1187–1517	Ayyubid & Mamluk dinar and dirham. Arabic legends.	Cairo and Damascus	None
1517–1917	Akçe, para, kuruş, lira. Four centuries under the Sultan's tuğra.	The Ottoman Empire, Constantinople	None
1917–1927	Egyptian pound. Legal tender pending permanent arrangements.	National Bank of Egypt, Cairo	None
1927–1948	Palestine pound. The exhibit below.	Palestine Currency Board, London	None
1948–MMXXVI	Israeli lira, then shekel, then new shekel; Jordanian dinar; US dollar. The present tri-currency regime of the Palestinian territories.	Bank of Israel; Central Bank of Jordan; the Federal Reserve	None
Balance	Currencies issued by a sovereign Palestinian state, 539 BCE – MMXXVI		0

Sixteen entries; fourteen empires; no Palestinian issuer. The Board does, however, direct attention to the entries struck by the land's own people. Twice in twenty-six centuries has money minted in this land proclaimed the land's freedom — "the Freedom of Zion," 66 CE; "the Redemption of Israel," 132 CE. Both proclamations are in Hebrew.²

Silver shekel of the First Jewish Revolt, year three, 68/69 CE — obverse and reverse, with Paleo-Hebrew inscriptions — Cat. PHR-N-0068 · silver · Jerusalem mint "Shekel of Israel" · Year Three of the First Revolt · 68/69 CE Cross-reference · Ledger entry seven · Room I Classical Numismatic Group · CC BY-SA 3.0

² Y. Meshorer, A Treasury of Jewish Coins (2001); L. Mildenberg, The Coinage of the Bar Kokhba War (1984). For the Temple-tax shekel of Tyre, Mishnah Bekhorot 8:7.

Exhibit · Cases I–III

The Mandate Pound

Palestine Currency Board · 1927–1948 · the visitor is asked to examine the Hebrew.

On 1 November 1927 the Palestine pound entered circulation; the Egyptian pound that had served since the British occupation remained legal tender beside it until 1 March 1928, when it was demonetized. The new currency was issued by the Palestine Currency Board, a body constituted in London by the Secretary of State for the Colonies. It was the only currency ever created for a territory named "Palestine" — and its Hebrew legend identified that territory as the Land of Israel. No second example of either has been recorded.³

One mil coin of British Mandate Palestine, 1927, with trilingual English, Arabic, and Hebrew inscriptions — Cat. PHR-N-1927 · bronze · one mil One Mil · Palestine Currency Board · 1927 Photograph: Arabmuslim12 · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Specimen A. One mil, bronze, 1927. Languages: three. Issuer: the Palestine Currency Board, London.

One Palestine Pound banknote, issued 1 September 1939 by the Palestine Currency Board, with trilingual legend in English, Arabic, and Hebrew. The Hebrew reads פלשתינה (א״י) — Palestine (Land of Israel). — Cat. PHR-N-1939 · paper · one pound One Pound · Palestine Currency Board · Jerusalem · 1 September 1939 UK Government · Crown copyright expired · public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

The only banknote series ever created for a territory named "Palestine." The territory's name appears three times, top to bottom: PALESTINE in English; فلسطين in Arabic; and, in Hebrew, פלשתינה (א״י) — the last expanding to "Palestine (Land of Israel)." Printed by Thomas De La Rue & Co., London. The two characters in parentheses are examined under magnification below.

Specimen B. One pound, paper, 1939. Printer: London. Issuer: London. Toponym: Palestine. Land: Israel.

Five Palestine Pounds banknote, 1929, issued by the Palestine Currency Board, with the same trilingual legend in English, Arabic, and Hebrew — Cat. PHR-N-1929 · paper · five pounds Five Pounds · Palestine Currency Board · 1929 The same three legends, at a higher denomination UK Government · Crown copyright expired · public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Specimen C. Five pounds, paper, 1929. Denomination: higher. Legend: identical.

³ The Review is aware of two near-claimants and registers both. The Umayyad fulus of the eighth century carry Filasṭīn as a mint district of a caliphate seated at Damascus — local strikings of another sovereign's money. And in 1948 the Anglo-Palestine Bank issued notes denominated in "Palestine pounds" — created for the State of Israel, which had not yet settled on the name of its money. The second case is commended to readers as an exercise.

Detail · Under Magnification

The Two Letters

Enlarged from the specimens above: the Hebrew legend of the Palestine pound.

Palestine Currency Board · All Issues · 1927–1948

פלשתינה (א״י)

"Palestine (Land of Israel)"

The two characters within parentheses — א״י — are the standard Hebrew abbreviation for Eretz Yisra'el, "the Land of Israel." The formula was fixed by the Mandatory administration in 1920 and applied without exception: every coin and note of the currency, every postage stamp, every passport of Mandatory Palestine carries it.

An Objection Is Recorded

The two Hebrew letters were contested from the start. The formula was a compromise of 1920: Zionist representatives had asked that the country's Hebrew name be Eretz Yisra'el outright; Arab representatives objected to any mention of it, and petitioned throughout the Mandate for the abbreviation's removal. The administration declined both parties and printed the compromise on everything for the remainder of the Mandate.

The Board has reviewed the Arab objection and finds it well founded. The Mandate's own preamble committed Britain to a Jewish national home in Palestine. The coin said so. The coin was not lying.

The Balance

The Palestinian Issue

The ledger may now be balanced. Between 539 BCE and MMXXVI, the money of this territory was issued by Persia; by Macedon and its successor kingdoms; by a Jewish commonwealth and two Jewish revolts; by Tyre, Rome, and Byzantium; by three caliphates, a Crusader kingdom, and two sultanates; by Egypt; by Great Britain; and, concurrently at present, by Israel, Jordan, and the United States.

The number of currencies issued in that period by a sovereign Palestinian state is zero. The figure is consistent with the Institute's findings on governments, heads of state, and primary documents, and with the chronology in which they do not occur. Readers wishing to examine the method may consult the methodology.

Curatorial Notes

The only currency in 2,600 years to bear the name "Palestine" was administered from London. It identified the territory in Hebrew as the Land of Israel.
The Paris Protocol (1994) left the introduction of a Palestinian currency to a future agreement between the parties. The future agreement has not arrived. Daily commerce proceeds in shekels; property, in dinars; transfers, in dollars.
A Palestine Monetary Authority has existed since 1994. It supervises banks, regulates payments, and publishes an annual report. It administers no currency; the Protocol did not provide one.

Awaiting Acquisition

Cat. PHR-C-0001 · reserved since MMXXIV The Sovereign Palestinian Issue · Shekel, Dinar, or Pound The case is prepared

Accession Card · PHR-C-0001

Specimen D. Currency, sovereign, Palestinian. Issuer: none recorded. Status: not collected.

No Specimen Received

The Palestinian shekel, dinar, or pound has not yet been minted. The Editorial Office welcomes specimens.⁴

⁴ Catalogue number PHR-C-0001 has been reserved since MMXXIV for the first sovereign Palestinian issue. The number remains available.

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