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Israel Coins Back from NGC (PICS)
Zohar
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1948 MS-63 Grade (AWESOME EXTREMELY RARE IN MS) is a personal MILESTONE. The 1949 25 Mils MS-62 (GREAT) and the MS-66RB is very hard to find as well.
See article below- LINK
ISRAELS FIRST COIN
BY DAVID T. ALEXANDER
It would be easy to draw up a list of great world rarities - coins that would strain a king's treasury to buy. Fascination can come, however, not only from great rarity and dazzling price records but also from the story a coin can tell and from the historical context in which it was written. Coins have been eyewitnesses to the stirring and often violent events of the just past century. Coins testify to the birth or death of nations, recall vanished rulers and regimes, and bring revolutions and conquests into your hands.
At the opening of the 20th century, the name Israel was found only in the Bible or as a collective word for the Jewish people in exile. After the founding of Zionism by Budapest-born journalist Theodor Herzl, vast effort was expended in establishing what Britain's Balfour Declaration called a "National Home for the Jewish People" in what had been the neglected backwater of the Ottoman Empire, Palestine.
Despite growing Arab and British opposition, Jewish immigration accelerated in response to Hitler's wartime genocide in Europe. Unable to resolve the Arab-Jewish conflict, the British withdrew in May 1948, after the United Nations voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. The Zionist leadership proclaimed the State of Israel on May 15, 1948. Already under attack by Arab irregulars, the new nation repelled several Arab regular armies, emerging with greatly increased territory after three waves of struggle.
To the new Jewish State, coinage had an unusually poignant significance. A start was made toward a new Jewish coinage during the 1948 fighting in the Mechsav cutlery factory in Tel Aviv's industrial suburb of Holon. The fall story of this coinage emerged only after the present writer's on-the-spot research during the 1979 American Israel Numismatic Association study tour to Israel.
Yosef Gannoy of Mechsav modified a Bridgeport-built cutlery stamping press to hold coinage dies cut by Saloh Kluegermann, brother of the firm's owner. Moshe Neudorfer of the new Israel Treasury brought the reverse (value-side) die to the factory every working day and a slow, laborious striking commenced.
The 25 mils was a 30mm coin of 97 percent aluminum, 3 percent magnesium, bearing a plain edge. The obverse depicted a bunch of grapes taken from a bronze prutah of Herod Archelaus (circa 4 B.C.). The stylized reverse wreath was adapted from coins of John Hyrkanos (135-104 B.C.) and was used in the later prutah series.
The exact number of coins bearing the Hebrew date 5708 (1948) is unknown, but certainly small. Little attention was paid to such details in the midst of war. A substantially greater number was struck dated 5709 (1949). The coins' overall quality disappointed the Treasury, and they were released only because of the serious coin shortage following the British withdrawal and the following war.
The 5708-dated 25 mils (KM 8) is virtually unknown in choice uncirculated. What might be called "basic uncirculated" examples with typical marks and planchet defects catalog at $850 and sold for much more when the Israel market was booming.
See article below- LINK
ISRAELS FIRST COIN
BY DAVID T. ALEXANDER
It would be easy to draw up a list of great world rarities - coins that would strain a king's treasury to buy. Fascination can come, however, not only from great rarity and dazzling price records but also from the story a coin can tell and from the historical context in which it was written. Coins have been eyewitnesses to the stirring and often violent events of the just past century. Coins testify to the birth or death of nations, recall vanished rulers and regimes, and bring revolutions and conquests into your hands.
At the opening of the 20th century, the name Israel was found only in the Bible or as a collective word for the Jewish people in exile. After the founding of Zionism by Budapest-born journalist Theodor Herzl, vast effort was expended in establishing what Britain's Balfour Declaration called a "National Home for the Jewish People" in what had been the neglected backwater of the Ottoman Empire, Palestine.
Despite growing Arab and British opposition, Jewish immigration accelerated in response to Hitler's wartime genocide in Europe. Unable to resolve the Arab-Jewish conflict, the British withdrew in May 1948, after the United Nations voted to partition Palestine into Jewish and Arab states. The Zionist leadership proclaimed the State of Israel on May 15, 1948. Already under attack by Arab irregulars, the new nation repelled several Arab regular armies, emerging with greatly increased territory after three waves of struggle.
To the new Jewish State, coinage had an unusually poignant significance. A start was made toward a new Jewish coinage during the 1948 fighting in the Mechsav cutlery factory in Tel Aviv's industrial suburb of Holon. The fall story of this coinage emerged only after the present writer's on-the-spot research during the 1979 American Israel Numismatic Association study tour to Israel.
Yosef Gannoy of Mechsav modified a Bridgeport-built cutlery stamping press to hold coinage dies cut by Saloh Kluegermann, brother of the firm's owner. Moshe Neudorfer of the new Israel Treasury brought the reverse (value-side) die to the factory every working day and a slow, laborious striking commenced.
The 25 mils was a 30mm coin of 97 percent aluminum, 3 percent magnesium, bearing a plain edge. The obverse depicted a bunch of grapes taken from a bronze prutah of Herod Archelaus (circa 4 B.C.). The stylized reverse wreath was adapted from coins of John Hyrkanos (135-104 B.C.) and was used in the later prutah series.
The exact number of coins bearing the Hebrew date 5708 (1948) is unknown, but certainly small. Little attention was paid to such details in the midst of war. A substantially greater number was struck dated 5709 (1949). The coins' overall quality disappointed the Treasury, and they were released only because of the serious coin shortage following the British withdrawal and the following war.
The 5708-dated 25 mils (KM 8) is virtually unknown in choice uncirculated. What might be called "basic uncirculated" examples with typical marks and planchet defects catalog at $850 and sold for much more when the Israel market was booming.
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Comments
What more can I say?!?
Gary
World Collection
British Collection
German States Collection
All excellent scores. Can't wait to see the pics!!!
Jim
2 XF-40s
2 AU-58s
2 MS-64s
Can anyone please check on NGC for me?
Taler Custom Set
Ancient Custom Set
that is it
Taler Custom Set
Ancient Custom Set
Thanks for sharing.
Jim
Does anyone on this forum by chance have coins that can fit?
Taler Custom Set
Ancient Custom Set
Taler Custom Set
Ancient Custom Set
I checked the catalog of a local auction which is closing soon and has a few slabbed coins, but all are lower grades than what you already have.
The 100-Pruta rare Utrecht die, which you have in MS-63, I saw a local vest-pocket seller in Tel Aviv offering three such coins, NGC MS-63 for $650, NGC-MS64 for $1000, and NGC MS-65 for $2000. The coins all looked pretty much the same to me. I think his pricing is unrealistic, but if you're willing to shell out some big $$$ for essentially the same coin with a fancier label, I can try to get a hold of that guy and see if he would be willing to negotiate.
I have a few raw gem BU red 1949 5-pruta coins ("without pearl" variety). You can cherry-pick the best one and I'll give it to you for free, if you think it will beat your MS-65RB.
1) Agree re Utrecht. Fair price for the 63 yet quite a jump beyond. $2K for a 65..
2) Thanks a bunch for the offer to cherrypick. I am not a grader but would be nice to look at. I should be in Tel Aviv in a couple of months and if you have time, we can perhaps get together again.
Z
Taler Custom Set
Ancient Custom Set
I think I bought a 5708 one for about fifty cents when they first came out. I still have it.
planetnumismatics.com/
I guess there are a few collectors for these after all.
Taler Custom Set
Ancient Custom Set