Paper Money Tokens - Palestine / Eretz Israel - 17 Urban Transportation Tokens - 5 Prutah - Early 1950s - Various ...

Paper Money Tokens - Palestine / Eretz Israel - 17 Urban Transportation Tokens - 5 Prutah - Early 1950s - Various Series and Serial Numbers Collection of transportation and payment tokens from the early 1950s, denominated 5 Mils, used for payment on urban public transportation services. Obverse: Red Star of David at center with Zionist motifs and the Hebrew inscription “Valid for travel on A.S.D. service”. Reverse: Serial numbers, series markings, and Hebrew terms of use. Due to a chronic shortage of small change, and in order to facilitate trade and daily transactions, various institutions, cooperatives, factories, and private businesses issued value tokens, payment vouchers, deposit certificates, promissory notes, and trade coupons, which functioned in practice as alternative currency. These forms of payment were often redeemable for cash or goods and services – sometimes only within a specific community or organization – and became an essential part of the evolving local economy. The use of such instruments reflected the spirit of initiative and economic independence that characterized the Jewish community in Palestine, and the aspiration to establish a self-sustained Hebrew financial system even before the birth of the State of Israel and its national currency. Items of strong interest to collectors of local currency substitutes, ephemera, and Palestine memorabilia.