Matthew Patay's
Note of the Month
March 2003
Map and flag images provided by Graphic Maps
This month's featured note
is from Israel.
The denomination is 50 New Sheqalim and the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money
(SCWPM) Number is P-55b.
The note is dated 1988.
(obverse)
The banknote is blue and purple on multicolored under print.
Shmuel Yosef Agnon (1888-1970), the
first Hebrew writer to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature, is at right.
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The following information
was obtained from:
Encarta.msn.com
Shmuel Yosef Agnon
(1888-1970)
Israeli writer and Nobel laureate. Originally surnamed Czaczkes, he was born in
Galicia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. He published his first
poetry, written in both Hebrew and Yiddish, at the age of 15. In 1910 he settled
in Jerusalem. Except for two stays in Germany, between 1912 and 1932, Agnon
lived in Israel until his death. In 1935 he was named the first recipient of the
Bialik Prize, the most prestigious literary award in Israel. In 1966, Agnon and
the German-Swedish poet Nelly Sachs shared the Nobel Prize in literature. Agnon
was cited for his “profoundly characteristic narrative art with motifs from the
life of the Jewish people.”
Agnon's stories, written in classical Hebrew and very difficult to translate,
are rich in Jewish folk legends and mysticism. They note the gradual decline of
the Galician Jewish communities between the time of his youth and the beginning
of World War I. Agnon's work that is set in Israel illustrates the differing
outlooks of the religious and idealistic early Jewish settlers of Palestine and
the predominantly secular present-day Israelis. Among his most admired works are
his novels The Bridal Canopy (2 volumes, 1919; trans. 1937) and A Guest for the
Night (1938; trans. 1968).
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(reverse)
A skyline of Jerusalem and a Jewish
townlet in Eastern Europe is at left center.
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The following
information was obtained from:
The Bank of Israel
Size: 138 X 76
mm.
Dominant colour: Purple.
Front: Portrait of S.Y. Agnon; the denomination "Fifty New Sheqalim"
and "Bank of Israel" in Hebrew.
Back: A skyline of Jerusalem and a Jewish townlet in Eastern
Europe; titles of 18 books by Agnon in microprint; the denomination "50 New
Sheqalim" and "Bank of Israel" in Arabic and English.
Watermark: Portrait of S.Y. Agnon.
Security thread: In the middle of the note.
Look-through: A three-sided pattern on the front merges with
another on the back to form a Star of David when held against the light.
Sign for the blind: A pentagon in the upper right-hand corner of
the front.
Colour of numbering: Black.
Signatures: Governor of the Bank Moshe Mandelbaum; Chairman of the
Advisory Council Avraham Shapira.
Design: Eliezer Weishoff.
Year: 1985.
Date of issue: September 4, 1985.
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