Palestine Coins of 1927-46: A guide for eBay collectors

[Ebayer]

This article written by Aron_R


This guide is for coin collectors who wish to use eBay to find and collect the 59 coins minted for circulation in historic 20th Century Palestine, issued from 1927 to 1946.


What are "Palestine coins"?

The only world coins bearing the name 'Palestine' were issued from 1927 to 1947 under the British Mandate to govern Palestine, which was granted to Great Britain by the League of Nations in 1923.

Under the auspices of the Palestine Currency Board, 59 different coins were minted for circulation in Palestine during the period from 1927 through 1946. (A few proof coins were also issued in 1947.)


What's unusual about Palestine coins?

Palestine coins were minted only when needed. For this reason, there are many years in which no coins appeared, and 'gaps' between dates in each denomination.
Palestine coins are vertically oriented the same way on obverse and reverse, an orientation which is much more commonly found in medals than in coins.
Many coins of this Holy Land of Christians, Jews, and Muslims are also 'holey.' Three of the seven denominations - the 5, 10, and 20 Mils - have large center holes.
Each coin is tri-lingual, bearing legends in three languages: English, Arabic, and Hebrew.
One surface of each of these coins - either obverse or reverse, depending on denomination - contains only words (legends). This is similar to many historic Islamic coins. Only one surface bears a picture, of an olive sprig or wreath.
These Palestine coins were successively demonetized in Israel, the Gaza Strip (at the time part of Egypt), and Jordan from 1948 to 1951. Around that time, many of these coins, particularly those in the silver 50 and 100 Mils denominations, but also including some bronze and cupronickel coins, were melted. As a result, these coins are scarcer than their published mintages.

What dates and denominations are available to collect?

The denominations of the 59 Palestine coins issued for circulation from 1927 to 1946 range from 1 Mil to 100 Mils. Each Mil represents 1/1000th of a Palestine Pound, equivalent to one British Pound Sterling, thus the 100 Mils coins was equivalent in value to 1/10 of a Pound, or to a British Florin or Two Shillings coin. The full list of dates and denominations is:


Ten (10) different dates of 1 Mil coins, in bronze:
Dates were 1927, 1935, 1937, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1944, and 1946.


Five (5) different dates of 2 Mils coins, in bronze:
Dates were 1927, 1941, 1942, 1945, and 1946.


Eight (8) different dates of 5 Mils coins, in cupronickel and (during World War II) bronze:
Dates were 1927, 1934, 1935, 1939, 1941, 1942 (bronze), 1944 (bronze), and 1946.


Twelve (12) different 10 Mils coins, bearing 11 different dates, in cupronickel and (during World War II) bronze:
Dates were 1927, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1937, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942 (in both cupronickel and bronze varieties), 1943 (bronze), and 1946.


Eight (8) different dates of 20 Mils coins, in cupronickel and (during World War II) bronze:
Dates were 1927, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1940, 1941, 1942 (bronze), and 1944 (bronze).


Eight (8) different dates of 50 Mils coins, silver (72%, alloyed with 28% copper):
Dates were: 1927, 1931, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1939, 1940, and 1942.


Eight (8) different dates of 100 Mils coins, silver (72%, alloyed with 28% copper):
Dates were 1927, 1931, 1933, 1934, 1935, 1939, 1940, and 1942.

During World War II, coins in the cupronickel 5, 10, and 20 Mils series were temporarily issued in bronze varieties, due to a demand for nickel for use in munitions. 10 Mils coins were issued in both cupronickel and bronze in 1942.

There were also a few, extremely rare proof coins dated 1947, never issued for circulation. Finally, a small number of rare proof coins also were issued for other dates, most notably 1927.


Which Palestine coins are available to collectors on eBay?


Over time, every one of the 59 Palestine coins issued for circulation, dated from 1927 to 1946, has been offered for sale on eBay, and it is thus possible to collect the entire set through purchases on eBay alone. On occasion, full sets of these coins have also been offered for sale on eBay.


Where can I find these coins on eBay?

To date, Palestine coins of the British Mandate period usually are listed under eBay's top-level Coins category, under either of two sub-categories: Coins: World > Asia, Middle East > Israel or Coins: World > Asia, Middle East > Other. Sometimes these coins also appear in Coins: World > Collections, Lots.

You can often use eBay's Search feature to find auction listings bearing the words 'palestine' and 'mil' or 'mils', within either the Coins top-level category or within one of the sub-categories listed above. The most common misspellings used by sellers are 'palistine' and 'mills'.

At least one other country, Cyprus, also used 'Mils' as the denominations for its coins, from 1955 to 1983, and thus a search using only that term in eBay's Coins category might retrieve some of those coins, as well.

What books describe these coins?

While you can find these coins listed in general catalogs of world coins of the 20th Century, there have also been several books published specifically on the topic of Palestine coins under the British Mandate.

The definitive reference appears to be Howard M. Berlin, The Coins and Banknotes of Palestine under the British Mandate, 1927-1947, which is available in both hardcover and softcover (paperback) editions.

Occasionally, this book appears for sale on eBay; it can also be purchased from many booksellers and via links from the author's website (search for "howard berlin palestine" on your favorite Internet search engine). Most of the book is devoted to history and to the banknotes of this period, but there is one long and thoroughly detailed chapter on the coinage of this period.

Are there price lists for these coins?

If you are buying or selling Palestine coins, it can be helpful to have some pricing guidance. Here are four ways to find out how much these coins may be worth:

The classic guide, Chester L. Krause and Clifford Mishler's Standard Catalog of World Coins, gives catalog (retail) pricing for each of the circulated coins in this series. Various annual editions of that catalog occasionally appear for sale on eBay, and current editions are also sold by many book dealers.


There are at least two coin dealers which maintain very extensive stocks of Palestine coins, and whose price lists, appearing on their websites, can thus serve as useful guides to retail pricing: William M. Rosenblum Rare Coins and Commemoratives International, Ltd. You can find these and other dealers of Palestine coins by searching using your favorite Internet search engine(s).


Using eBay alone, there are also two useful ways that you can obtain pricing guidance for Palestine coins:


First, eBay's Advanced Search feature allows you to search only Completed auctions, so you can find the actual prices paid by eBay buyers in recent sales.


In addition, there are a number of eBay sellers who maintain stocks of these coins in their eBay Stores. Two ways to find these sellers, and to thus view their offering prices, are to look at the eBay Stores listings at the end of your search results, and to search for Buy It Now listings for Palestine coins.

How much do these coins cost?

Pricing for Palestine coins varies widely, depending on scarcity, demand, and condition. The following prices are based on observations of eBay sales in 2005 and early 2006, and are subject to change:

Well-circulated examples of common coins, which sometimes include damaged, cleaned, or discolored examples, sometimes sell at prices as low as $1 US each, in multiple coin lots.

Uncirculated coins often range in price from approximately $10 US for the commonest coin - the 1927 1 Mil - to hundreds of dollars (US) for the scarcest dates and denominations. Key dates of the 20 Mils and 100 Mils denominations are particularly scarce in Uncirculated condition. At the high end, a January 2006 sale on eBay of a superb, uncirculated 1931 100 Mils coin, one of the key dates in the entire 59 coin series, fetched over $1,200 US.

Complete sets are occasionally offered for sale on eBay. However, perhaps because of reserves or high starting prices, or because collectors may prefer to put together their own sets, I've observed that few have actually been sold. The asking prices for these sets have ranged from approximately $500 US to $7,000 US, depending on seller and condition.

Which are the easiest coins with which to start a collection?

Common dates of the 1, 2, 5, and 10 Mils coins in circulated condition are frequently sold on eBay, often in multiple coin lots at relatively low prices, and are thus the easiest coins to begin collecting. The 1927 1, 2, and 5 Mils coins are among the most commonly found in circulated condition.

The 2 Mils coins are likely the easiest denomination to complete, as the set consists of only five dates, and only two - the 1945 and 1946 - had relatively low mintages. These coins are also large and showy, so they make a good starter set for a beginning collector. Full sets of five 2 Mils coins occasionally appear for sale on eBay, and usually fetch prices in the range of $5 to $25 for the five-coin circulated set. Here's a small picture of this set:



Are there albums for these coins?

Several of the complete sets of Palestine coins that have been offered for sale on eBay have been enclosed in albums, although I haven't seen those albums offered for sale separately, either on eBay or from coin supply dealers.

There is at least one acetate slide-type album with wording in the English language, custom manufactured by Dansco in a small quantity of 125 albums in 2003 for a collector in the USA. Several of the complete sets of Palestine coins I've seen offered for sale on eBay have been housed in that album. In addition, I've seen two different folding cardboard-style albums with Hebrew inscriptions and another album bearing an English language cover appear in offerings of complete sets on eBay.

What's the history of the period when these coins were issued?

Here's a very, very brief history:

The empire of the Ottoman Turks ruled the area of historic Palestine for 400 years, until their military defeat by the British in 1917.

In turn, the British occupation, and subsequent Mandate - which led to the issuance of these coins - occurred from 1917 to 1947.

This period ended with the United Nations vote to partition Palestine in 1947, the formal departure of the British in 1948, and the Arab-Israeli War of 1948-49, variously known as the War of Independence (or Liberation) or 'The Catastrophe' ('al Nakba' in transliterated Arabic).



Guide ID: 10000000000770353Guide created: 02/27/06 (updated 06/23/08)

[basemzarour]

Is there a way to announce that there is a new Album that's out and it's in really good quality?