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"THEODOR HERZL CENTENARY"
Israel's First Gold Coin
The Third Silver Anniversary Coin
This is the First Gold Coin issued by the Bank of Israel. It was issued to commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the birth of Theodor Herzl. Theodor Herzl, (1860-1904), was an Austrian journalist and playwright and the chief leader of the Zionist movement. The movement's aim was to set up a Jewish national home in Palestine. Herzl was born in Budapest, Hungary. The growing problem of anti-Jewish feeling in Europe, increased by the Dreyfus case in France, attracted Herzl's attention. He saw that European Jews had failed to gain social equality even when they had become politically free. He then advanced the idea of gathering the scattered Jews into a country and a nation of their own. His motives were economic and social, rather than religious. Herzl's Jewish State, published in 1896, attracted many people to the Zionist cause, including Max Nordau and Israel Zangwill. In 1897, Herzl presided over the first Zionist Congress in Basel, Switzerland.
Description of the Coin Front A portrait of Theodor Herzl in the upper right. The state emblem appears at the bottom with the inscription in Hebrew, "It is no legend". Reverse The inscription in Hebrew: "Twenty Israeli Lirot 1860-1960/5620-5720. The State Emblem appears in the center of the coin. Silver Coins: The large Numeral "5" and the Hebrew inscription, "Israeli Lirot."
Actual Gold Weight: .2355 oz
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