2024 SHEKEL PRIZE ANNOUNCED

 
The Shekel Prize medal was designed by Victor Huster.

Mel Wacks, President Emeritus of the American Israel Numismatic Association, has announced that the winners of the 2024 Shekel Prize are the co-authors of The Yehud Coinage - a comprehensive work weighing in at over 6 pounds and 832 pages. The die study was originally carried out by Jean-Philippe Fontanille, with commentary by Dr. Haim Gitler and Catharine Lorber. Gitler, Lorber and Fontanille are residents of Israel, the United States and Canada, respectively.

 

A Yehud coin was first published in 1814 by Taylor Combs, Keeper of Coins and Antiquities at the British Museum, featuring a mysterious seated male figure on a winged wheel. Interestingly, no other example of this type has ever been discovered.

The volume, published by the Israel Numismatic Society, presents a die study of the provincial silver coinage of Judah in the late Persian, Macedonian, and early Hellenistic periods, ranging from about 350 – 262 BCE. It offers precise descriptions of the coins, their designs, and their inscriptions; enumerates the obverse and reverse dies identified for each of the 44 recorded types; and explains the probable sequence of the issues as deduced from iconographic associations and die links. The iconography of the coin types is examined in depth, with comparisons to motifs in Greek, Persian, and ancient Near Eastern art, including other local coinages and sources in Judahite material culture. The monograph also analyzes data relating to the metrology, metal content, and circulation of the coinage. Overall, the study attempts to place the Yehud coinage in its historical context and to define its role in the economy of the ancient province of Judah. The Yehud Coinage is available on amazon for $150.

The Shekel Prize Committee also awarded a Special Commendation to Dr. Howard Berlin, author of a definitive study The Palestine Currency Board, Its History and Finances. This book traces the need and development for a native Palestine currency, culminating with the formation of the Palestine Currency Board which administered the Palestine Mandate's new monetary system. Unlike Britain's imperial pound-shilling-pence monetary system, the newly created Palestine pound was a decimal system divided into 1,000 mils and used the British pound sterling as its anchor currency. Established June 15, 1926, the Palestine Currency Board remained in effect for 26 years until it was dissolved on March 31, 1952, nearly four years after the State of Israel was established on May 14, 1948. The softcover version is available on amazon for $40.95.

 

The rarest 100 Palestine banknote (1927 100 pounds) was sold in an auction in England in 2022 for £140,000 ($173,000). Less than 10 are known to exist.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NEW BOOK: THE PALESTINE CURRENCY BOARD (https://www.coinbooks.org/v26/esylum_v26n13a11.html)

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