Israel's 1958 5-lirot

[villa66]

Israel’s 1958 5-lirot commemorating the Jewish state’s first decade of nationhood offers some small postscript, I think, to the outrages of the 1930s and ‘40s.

Sitting safely in its wooden box for what is now a full half-century, this silver piece—like the State of Israel itself—is in its own simple way a powerful rejoinder to the Holocaust.

For all its quiet, upright calm, sometimes this coin seems to me to be ready to burst with laughter, as if it just wants to shout “Life!”

v.

[Afrasi]

For all its quiet, upright calm, sometimes this coin seems to me to be ready to burst with laughter, as if it just wants to shout “Life!” v.

Nice metapher! Looking at the piece of 5 Lirot of the following year I agree you're right.

[villa66]

Fun stuff. You've posted one of my all-time favorites. Much of its appeal--for me, anyway--is the coin's subject (as rendered into English): "The Ingathering of the Exiles." Old poetry, in comfortable clothes.

I like your pairing of coin and caption. They fit.

v.