Introducing an Israeli Collective Portrait: The Allegoric Figures Series Banknotes

The Allegoric Figures Series was the first Israeli banknotes series carefully designed by a special committee, namely, the Bank of Israel Banknotes and Coinage Planning Committee. Analyzing the committee's discussions and its discourse with its superiors—the governor of the Bank of Israel, the minister of finance, and the prime minister—this paper reveals a consistent attempt to design the series in the spirit of the desired Zionist-Israeli society. Influenced by the banknotes of the French Revolution, the committee introduced symbols of a pioneering, productive society. Their aim was to create a common denominator during the peak of the Great Aliya and a tool for the benefit of the melting pot ideal—an ideal that Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion himself encouraged to be expressed through the banknote illustrations. This article, based on documents of the Bank of Israel Banknotes and Coinage Planning Committee made public for the first time, examines the deliberations of the committee and the reasons for its choices.