The Specimen Pruta Coins of the State of Israel

Abstract

When the British Mandate of Palestine ended in 1948, the fledgling State of Israel was immediately in need of circulation coins and banknotes. Attempts to strike coins in makeshift factories in Israel failed: the production rate was low, and the coin quality was poor. Coin production was therefore outsourced to the ICI Mint in Birmingham, U.K. Years later, a few pruta-series coins were found with the inscription SPECIMEN in raised letters. This brings the questions of how and why these coins came to be, how many exist, and how some of them ended up in the hands of collectors.