NEW SHEKEL: COIN OF ISRAEL
5 new shekel, 2021: State of Israel
Circulating commemorative coin: With Gratitude to the Medical Teams in response during the pandemic (COVID-19 pandemic).
Date on coin: ה'תשפ"ב — JE 5782 (JE: "Jewish calendar" — also called Hebrew calendar) = 2021 (Gregorian calendar).
اسرائيل - ISRAEL - ישראל: the name of the state is indicated in three languages: Arabic, English and Hebrew.
5 שקלים חדשים - denomination in Hebrew (5 new shekel).
NEW SHEKELS - شيقل جديد: denomination in English, Arabic.
WITH GRATITUDE - مع الامتنان - בהוקרה: expressions of gratitude to all medical workers who participated in overcoming the pandemic (in three languages).
The Emblem of Israel: temple menorah surrounded by an olive branch on each side, with the word "Israel" written in Hebrew.
Symbolic image of two hands clasped together: a representative of the medical service with stethoscope and a patient.
Coin design: Eitan Alon and Gabi Neumann.
- Copper-nickel: 24 mm - 8.22 g
- Reference price: 4.2$
COIN NEW SHEKEL — WHERE & WHEN (coins catalog: by names & emitents)
- STATE OF ISRAEL (2015-...): new shekel = 100 agora
NEW SHEKEL as coin name.
In short, new shekel — the modern currency and coin of Israel.
The name comes from the ancient weight measure of the same name, which was used for thousands of years first in Mesopotamia, and then throughout the Middle East, including the Jews. Also, modern numismatists use the term shekel to denote a number of ancient coins...
However, if you delve a little deeper into the information sources, it turns out that not everything is so simple. The fact is that on Israeli coins of the new era, the denomination was indicated in English for a long time, next to Arabic and Hebrew, in the format "sheqel" (during 1980-1985; in the plural: sheqalim) or "new sheqel" (since 1985 year).
However, since 2015, Israeli coins began to contain the name of the denomination in the format "new shekel" (plural: new shekels) instead of "new sheqel".
Why did this happen, and why exactly in 2015?... — I don't know the answers to these questions yet.
One thing is certain: sheqel is the Latin spelling of the Israeli term (the correct transliteration), while shekel is a more convenient spelling of this coin name for English speakers.
